Akumako
by GS
Summary: After an extended trip to find himself, chuunin Naruto returns to Konoha after a forgotten detour with Gaara of the Sand that results in something more then anyone expected. Slash.
1. Uzumaki Naruto, I'm going to kill you

The first thing Naruto noticed was that he couldn't see. He blinked once or twice but the room grew no lighter. He attempted to raise his hands to touch his face but was brought up short by a clink of metal and a sharp jab in the wrist. His legs were bound too. A chain ran between the shackles on his wrists to the shackles on his ankles. He struggled off his stomach and onto his knees.

His body protested the movement, the cold floor had stiffened his injured muscles and there was very little room to maneuver. He wiggled around more, kicking the stonewall then the soft body next to him.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto thought the person was dead and jumped away but only managed to bang his head on the wall.

"Stop moving," the harsh voice snapped and Naruto stopped moving.

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded. He had managed to get his knees under his body but held still as to not hit the person again. Only silence met his question. He dismissed the person for the moment and tried to stand.

He made it about half a foot up then smack his head painfully on the top of the cell and sent himself crashing back to the ground.

"Fuck," Naruto groaned but he couldn't even clutch his spinning head.

"I told you to stop moving," the voice rasped again.

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded through clenched teeth. "Where are we?"

There was only silence.

Naruto growled, frustrated. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. There. I introduced myself. Who are you?"

There was a long paused and Naruto fidgeted. He could only move a few short centimeters to the side and the ceiling was just above his head. He couldn't stretch out his legs because they hit the wall behind him so he wiggled forward on his stomach until he cracked his nose painfully on bars. Panting now, and feeling a tad claustrophobic, he struggled onto his back. His neck was bent uncomfortably on the bars and his knees were pressed into the ceiling but he felt more in control and could breath easier.

There was a sigh beside him as the person silently let his displeasure be known.

"Are you going to talk?" Naruto asked. He was much calmer now that he had taken stock of where he was. Not happier, but a bit more in control.

Blank silence was the answer, so Naruto went to poke the person but misjudged the distance and jabbed the boy painfully in the rib.

"Oi!" Naruto said louder. "Are you alive? Oi!"

"Yes," was the reluctant answer.

"You don't talk much do you?" Naruto chattered. The boy didn't answer. "That's okay, I talk enough for two people!"

The words echoed and fell flat. It was very cold and Naruto shivered despite the thick orange jacket he wore. Beyond the bars was an empty space and, while the small notch that he and the unknown boy shared was warm from their body heat, a cold draft wafted in and chilled his neck.

All he could remember was heading back through the woods towards Konoha Village. It had been five years since he had returned home. He had decided it was time to disappear for a while, grow a little before taking his Jounin exams. But the six month leave he had taken had extended into a year because he couldn't leave Kimura-san all alone during the winter with her baby and her husband missing. Then after that he had gotten sidetracked with Yamato-chan and her quest for her parents. Then it was Murai and the bandits near Sand Country. It was person after person, teacher after teacher, and for a while he had forgotten Konoha. It seemed easier out of the village and away from people who knew his origins and scorned him.

It wasn't until his travels had taken him close to Wave Country and he had seen the bridge that he had helped to protect and the spot where Haku had died when he realized he had been away from his precious people too long.

But, so it appeared, he would be away a mite bit longer.

Naruto braced his feet on the wall and slowly began to push on the bars with his shoulders. He gritted his teeth as the solid bars bit into his shoulders but pushed as hard as he could in the cramped space. The bars were embedded into the stone floor and melded deep so they didn't even budge. Naruto wasn't one to give up, so he pushed until his knees shook and his shoulder blades began to crack.

"Stop that," the voice grumbled.

Surprised, Naruto relaxed and, panting, turned his head to grin at the person beside him.

"Are you finally going to speak?'

"The bars won't move. The walls are too thick," the voice growled. "So stop moving."

"I might if you tell me your name."

Silence reigned, so Naruto shrugged and started to push again. He grunted in pain but the bars and the stone didn't even show signs of stress.

"Gaara."

"No, my name's Naruto," Naruto stopped pushing. He was starting to get overheated.

"My name is Gaara. And I remember _you_, Uzumaki Naruto."

Fear shot down his spine and he sucked in his breath. _Gaara_. That name still made his feet grow cold. It had been _years_.

"Gaara of Sand Country?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the waver out of his voice as he edged closer to the stonewall on his left.

This time Gaara didn't answer and Naruto spent a few tense minutes plastered uncomfortable against the wall as far as he could from the other ninja. He started to relax after realizing that if Gaara was about to attack him he would have done so all ready.

"Do you have any idea how we got here?"

Silence.

"You know, if you couldn't break out of here, and I can't break out of here, wouldn't it make sense to see if we can break out together?"

This time the silence was oddly thoughtful.

"I, for one, do not remember anything beyond walking. I didn't even sense anything. It was just outside of the Konoha border."

"Near the end of Fire country. I had completed a mission with Temari and we were attacked. I don't remember anything else."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Longer then you," there was a smirk hidden behind the remark and Naruto scowled. It seemed a common trait for ninjas to be competitive in the worst circumstances. "About half an hour," he complied.

Naruto was quiet for a while. "Do you think this has anything to do with us both having demons?"

"When is it ever about anything else?" Gaara shot back bitterly.

The darkness was good because Naruto couldn't see just how closed in he was. He hated small spaces.

"There has to be a way out, we got in here somehow," Naruto stubbornly kicked the wall his feet were pressed against and hissed as he banged his knee painfully on the roof. "Is there a door or something on your side?"

A pause. "Yeah. But I can't reach the lock. My hands are tied and I can't get them through the bars."

Naruto turned on his side and curled so his back pressed into the stonewall and his knees dug into Gaara's hip. This provided enough slack to bring his hands even with Gaara's. The Sand demon had jumped when he felt Naruto pressing into him but held still as Naruto ran his hands over the lock in the dark.

He formed three seals over the lock and they heard a small click. Gaara rubbed his free hands. "What was that?"

"I hate being bested by people," Naruto replied cryptically, remembering a day years and years ago when a certain Sasuke had known something about rope tying and lock picking jutsu he didn't. "Can you open the lock now?"

Gaara reached between the thick bars and easily lifted the latch. The door opened. He had to crawl out on his elbows with Naruto hot on his heels. Gaara stretched in relief, his back had cramped from being squeezed into a prison shelf for so long. Naruto, unfortunately, was still chained.

"A little help would be-" Naruto started but never finished.

He woke up some time later, in the woods where he had been walking, not far from the walls of Konoha.

Naruto sat up gingerly, a little embarrassed to be lying out on a well known trail where just anyone could walk across him. That would be a great welcome back, "Hey Naruto, how'd your travels go? Tripped over a root and knocked yourself unconscious did you?"

Did he trip? He glanced around and saw nothing.

A cold place…

…flash of light…

…red hair…

… shouting.

He shook his head and checked it for any bumps. Nothing. He stood up carefully and glanced around the bushes. Nothing. He started moving again, this time more then eagerness hurrying his stride. He didn't take kindly to people messing with his memory.

It was very anti-climatic. Naruto showed his hitane to the watch guards and found himself standing into the walls of his childhood home. Everything was exactly the same; he walked down the street and was struck with a weird sense of déjà vu.

Sure, the odd things changed. That corner shop used to sell books, not fish and the woman who worked at the vegetable stand now kept a watchful eye on two young children. But the structure, the atmosphere was the same.

Even the looks.

He resisted the urge to pull up his collar as he walked through the town. People openly gaped at him and he caught phrases like 'Isn't that-', 'He's back,' and perhaps the most hurtful of all, 'Damn, I thought he was dead…'

Wishing to be out of the stare of the people, Naruto ducked quickly into a shop, smiling as the teenager greeted him with a cheerful welcome. She was too young to know him, too young even to have been told stories or warnings to stay away from him. Naruto idly picked up a magazine and flipped through it. Perhaps this was why he stayed away for so long. He had been waiting for people to forget.

He stayed in the shop as long as he dared but the nagging incident in the woods forced him to hurry on towards the hospital.

It wasn't surprising that he hadn't run into anyone he had known. He suspected that most of them had moved on, perhaps were jounin or even ANBU now. They were probably all off on missions. That was all right, he would see them after he had his head examined.

The receptionist looked at him, frightened as she noticed his scarred cheeks, but took down his name with a shaking hand and darted off in the back.

It was a quiet day and the emergency room was empty so Naruto leaned against the desk and soaked in the sterile environment. He had spend an unhealthy amount of time in this place, usually unconscious or visiting someone. He grinned, the life of a shinobi, a few short minutes of glory then to your second home at the hospital for a patch job.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

He turned back to where the pale receptionist had shoved a nurse in front of her like a shield. "Yes, that's me."

"It's been a while," the woman smiled shyly and Naruto blinked.

"Hinata? You're a doctor?" he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. She had always seemed out of place in the ninja profession.

"No, I'm practicing some healing jutsu. I'm a med-nin for my chuunin team," she explained.

Naruto frowned. If she wasn't a doctor or a nurse why was she examining patients? Then it dawned on him. Here he was, a dangerous demon who disappeared for five years suddenly back complaining of head injuries. Of course the woman would panic and drag the closet trained fighter to see him.

There was an awkward silence and Naruto's expression darkened. The woman trembled a bit but Hinata only looked bewildered. "It's good to see you," she said finally to break the silence. This was not the way she had expected to see Naruto again. When he hadn't returned after the six months she had gotten worried. Then years had passed and while she didn't forget him she had moved on with her life. She had always hoped to see him again but as time went on she had accepted that perhaps he had died.

But here he was, in the living flesh, and something swelled in her chest that she had been missing for years. Not the childish love she had one had in abundance, but happiness and relief. Naruto had glanced up with a small smile at her words.

"It's good to see you too, Hinata."

The receptionist had disappeared to the annoyance of Naruto and confusion of Hinata. She led him back to an examining room and left with a promise of a doctor.

It took longer then Naruto cared for so he fidgeted on the starch sheets of the examining bed. The thin blue cloth that separated him from the world didn't do a very good job and he could hear the coughs of the man down the hall quite clearly. Boxes of wrapped medical jargon were packed everywhere, the room was filled with things but they were in such an orderly way it looked almost empty. It made Naruto feel out of place.

Finally, Hinata was back with a young, skittish male doctor at her heels. She kept him company while the doctor first felt through his hair for lumps, the checked his eyes.

"Y-you say you don't remember anything? The doctor tried his best to be confident as he scribbled notes on his clipboard.

Naruto sighed. This was the third time the doctor has asked him this question. He was seriously starting to doubt his abilities. "I thought we went over this all ready."

The doctor let out a nervous laugh then stammered about talking to a superior as he bowed out of the office.

"That was weird," Hinata frowned from where she sat on a plain chair beside the bed. "Usually Dr. Murai is more outgoing. He's treated my team many times. That was how I got him down here, once I said your name most of the doctors left. I don't get it."

Naruto looked to where she was frowning slightly. She sat so properly on the chair, her hands neatly folding in her la and through her voice was still tiny and quiet she spoke with a confidence she rarely had exhibited before. Her hair was still short but less severely so, the layers softened out her child-like face and made her eyes seem more eager then stark.

"That's okay," Naruto sighed and flopped down on the bed. He propped his feet up on the sheets and Hinata winced as months worth of dried mud were shaken loose. Naruto only grinning in vengeance. "What have you been up to?" he asked. When he had left, she was getting ready for her third try at the chuunin exam.

"Nothing exciting," she smiled modestly. "Kiba, Shino, Chouji and I are assigned together for B-rank missions. My sister is all ready a jounin," at that her voice caught. "We are all very proud of her. I suppose you would like to hear about your old teammates, yes?"

"Sure," Naruto was actually extremely curious as to what had happened to them. Sasuke and Sakura had been chuunin when he left.

"Sasuke-kun is a jounin now," she said carefully, trying to gauge Naruto's reaction. To her relief he looked happy at that. "Sakura is taking classes at the college with me. We are both planning on taking the Level 3 med-nin test next week. She is very friendly, we often study together."

That was a tidbit of news he hadn't thought of. Sakura would have been perfect for a med-nin but the fact that she and Hinata got a long so well was surprising. Sakura and Ino had been friends since they were little and there had been very little time in Sakura's life to dedicate to other people.

"What about Kakashi-sensei, and Tsunade-baba?" Naruto questioned and Hinata stiffened in shock at the informal name.

"Kakashi-sensei is around, as far as I know he hasn't taken any new genin," she added when he asked. "Hokage-sama," she said sternly, "is healthy. Shikamaru-kun works for her now as an Advisor. Ino-san is taking the jounin exams next month, as is Shino."

"Wow, looks like our year has it good,' Naruto grinned. "But come on, you have to tell me the dirt! Who's hooked up with who? You gotta tell me Hinata, it's the sole reason I had to come back, the anticipation was killing me!"

Hinata blushed fiercely but had a wicked slant to her eyes. "Ino and Shikamaru are engaged."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "No way! I thought he would have been too lazy to deal with a high maintenance girl like her!"

Hinata started to relax and though her cheeks were still tinged with pink she started to gossip in earnest. "I don't know if he had much choice in the matter."

Naruto laughed at that and Hinata glanced at the ground, blushing at being so brass. They both stopped and looked up as the timid doctor opened the screens followed closely by a hooked nosed bald man who towered over him.

Without even talking, the older man formed several complicated seals on naruto's head then grabbed Naruto's chin with both hands to look into his eyes. Naruto snarled at the rough treatment but sat still. After a few minutes, the man released him.

"If it's a memory jutsu I don't know what one it is," the man snapped. "Perhaps you just fell, young man, and can't remember it. Now if you would stop wasting the hospital's time, we have real patients to treat."

Hinata looked shocked and embarrassed at the doctor's words but Naruto glared at the two men when they hurried out the door.

"Naru-"

"It's okay, Hinata,' he sighed and jumped off the bed. "I have to see Tsunade anyway. Catch you later?"

She nodded mutely, clutching the zipper to her vest nervously. He flashed her a grin and left.

He didn't even bother with the streets, instead traveling to the headquarters by roof. It was surprising how badly they treated him. He supposed that before they were used to him and thought of him as an unwelcome but harmless reminder. Now they had no idea if he was still harmless.

An overworked chuunin told him pointedly that 'the Hokage was very busy' and perhaps he should have made an appointment a few weeks ago. Naruto was about to plead his case, when the door opened and an equally harassed pile of folders stepped out.

"Umako, if you would please," the papers sounded stained and the chuunin hurried forward to take half of the files. Shikamaru's head was now visible. He started when he saw Naruto and almost dropped the rest of the folders.

"Naruto! You're back!" it was perhaps the dumbest thing Shikamaru had ever said in his entire life. Naruto grinned cheekily.

"Hey lover boy," Naruto waved. "How's Ino?"

Shikamaru was frozen on the spot, dumbfounded for the first time in years. "F-fine…"

"Nara-senpai," the chuunin, Umako, was staggering under the weight of his folder. "Where would you like these?"

"The filing room," he answered dismissingly. "Are you here to see the Hokage?"

"If she's not too busy," he snuck a glance at the rapidly turning red faced Umako. Shikamaru snorted, regrouping his dignity.

"The Hokage is never busy, not when she makes me do all her work," he scowled. "Surprise her."

To surprise Tsunade was incredibly easy, all Naruto did was walk in the door. She was busy cheating on the Go board Shikamaru had left behind when Naruto walked in and sat down across from her.

Of course, he was forced to endure her lecture about treating an old woman with respect as he helped her pick up the Go pieces and the stacks of paper that had once been in order. Shikamaru had shown up during the lecture but spent the time sitting in the chair Naruto had been seated in looking justified. After everything was cleaned up, Tsunade ordered Shikamaru out to buy her a coffee and he grumbled how it was coming from her pay this time.

"So you've finally decided to come back," she said after everything was settled. "I thought you had died."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," Naruto scowled. "I just got caught up in things."

"For five years," she remarked then dropped the subject. She couldn't blame the boy for wanting a vacation from the villagers. "I suppose you need a place to stay, and for reasons we both know it is going to be hard to convince a landowner to give you a lease," she felt bad when he winced slightly but continued. "I'm sure we can find some one for you to stay with until we get it all sorted out."

"No one really knows I'm back," Naruto shrugged. "I can rough it in a hotel for a while. But I don't have much money," he grinned. "So I might need an advance pay, Tsunade-baba…"

Her left eye twitched. "I'm sure we can convince someone to take you in."

This was why he had come back, he decided. To make Tsuande's eye twitch, to be number one at surprising people and to tease people like Ino and Shikamaru. This was why he wanted to come home.

After a pay cut threat by Tsunade, it was figured that Naruto would stay with Shikamaru for the night as it was getting fairly late.

The genius chuunin shuffled away from the head office with his hands shoved in his pocket, obviously still debating whether or not it would be more troublesome to argue with the Hokage or with his fiancée. Because of the fading light he managed to avoid stares and whispers, especially since he was shadowing the highly respectable Hokage Advisor.

"We don't have a spare room," Shikamaru informed him as they climbed the stairs that wound up the apartment building. "So the couch will have to do. Ino is probably home now, ready to bitch about her day. But seeing you will probably make her bitch more."

Sure enough, Ino was in the kitchen, attempting to make dinner in a hurry because she had forgotten (again, according to Shikamaru) to go shopping after her shift at the school.

"N-Naruto!" she almost dropped the pan of vegetables. Shikamaru took it from her hands and placed it back on the burner. "W-what the hell- Shika- I mean, I'm glad you aren't dead!" she blurted out finally and shoved him into a chair around the kitchen.

"Do you want something? Water, tea?" then she turned and smacked Shikamaru on the shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me he was coming! I would have had dinner ready!"

Shikamaru grumbled under his breath as she ran around getting him a glass of cold tea. Naruto was a little uncomfortable with the fussing Ino did, but once dinner was served and they were seated the conversation was warm-hearted.

"Where have you been?" Ino was barely touching her food, too bewildered and shocked that Naruto was there. "I mean, Sakura and I had a bet going for the first year when you would be coming back but we kind of gave up two years ago."

"I've been all over," Naruto replied between shoveling food into his mouth. "I spent the first year in Fire country actually, on the other side near the northern border with a woman. She took me in for a few months when I was training because that place was horrible for bandits and her husband was away. Then he got stuck out of the country when he didn't make it back before the snow so I stay with them until he came back. They had the cutest little girl, Hitomi…"

They talked well into the next morning. Shikamaru and Ino finally went to bed around three and Naruto crashed soundly on the couch.

That was the way Naruto's life went for the rest of the week. During the day he spent the morning helping the prospective jounin with their casual training, went for lunch with them where he would meet an old acquaintance, then spent the afternoons in Tsunade's office playing board games while Shikamaru doodled unhappy faces in the margins of failed mission reports.

This peaceful little limbo existence would end, quite suddenly, on the eighth day of Naruto's return at around one o'clock in the afternoon when he was Tsunade were locked in a battle of wills over the chess board.

The front desk chuunin, the always harried looked chuunin, Umako, knocked on the door before uncharacteristically barging in. "Hokage-sama, please excuse the interruption but there is someone very important to see you!"

"Send them in," she said crisply. Shikamaru paused, his pen poised over the scroll and Naruto placed his king down carefully as three men walked past the chuunin into office.

"Sasuke-kun," she greeted one of the men. "Kakashi. Who is this?"

"Hokage-sama, sorry to be so late," Kakashi joked tensely. They were supporting a shorter body, probably in his late teens, who looked utterly exhausted. "But you see, we found this guy just lying there and-"

Naruto snorted and the two looked over at him. They dropped their bundle in surprise. "Naruto!" Sasuke gasped.

If anything, the jounin had gotten even more suave and mysterious while Naruto was gone. Kakashi looked the same as always, though Naruto suspected that once hair was turned grey it couldn't go any other colour.

The boy they had dropped groaned and dragged himself to his knees. The hood that had been covering his face fell off and revealed a shock of red hair.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara's voice was gritty. "I'm going to _kill_ you."


	2. What do you think of me?

**_GS Note: Reloaded chapter one. Should be no mistakes in this chapter either but, hey I'm lazy. Also, time line doesn't exist. I've watch up to meeting Tsunade in the anime and read the first few manga in Japanese but I haven't dedicated a lot of time it. _**

**_Also. I'm avoiding using Japanese but I've only seen the Japanese version or read the Japanese manga so I have no idea what the English terminology is. You can be assured the Japanese it right if I have to use it but things like dobe will be kept dobe if that is the best word and Tsunade-baba is one of my favourite nicknames so I'm keeping that when needed._**

_**Pairings- be prepared for slash. I'm an equal opportunist romantic and, yeah. Don't like it stop now. **_

**_I'm also one of the laziest writers you will EVER MEET so while I'm in a writing mood right now I may not be for long. I update when I update and while encouragement helps I would rather right a good quality piece then a fast, short bad quality piece. _**

**_I'm actually surprised anyone likes this so, yeah. Makes me happy to hear from y'all. _**

CHAPTER 2

Tsunade had taken one look at Gaara and evicted Naruto from his chair so the worn Sand-nin could sit. Shikamaru had given up on his work and was leaned back in his chair, arms crossed with a look of feigned boredom on his face. Sasuke leaned against the wall, shooting angry glares at Naruto, who was twitching uncomfortably.

"We were headed back when we found him collapsed on the trail. We thought at first someone had mugged him until we saw who it was. We thought it best to bring him here," Kakashi had managed to get over his shock and calmly explained things to the Hokage while shooting discreet glances at his former student. "He claimed to be looking for Naruto."

"I am looking for that bastard," Gaara mumbled. His voice was slurred and he was slumped uncomfortably on the chair like his back wouldn't support him. Sasuke's hands hovered over his kunai and Kakashi's shoulder tightened but Naruto just looked confused.

"Let's not get over excited," Tsunade rested her chin in her hands. "Sasuke, Kakashi, go file your report. I'll summon you for a debriefing about this later."

The two jounin narrowed their eyes at her. "I think we'd be best suited here," Sasuke grumbled and planted his feet.

"I think that I'm the Hokage," Tsunade's eyes flashed irritably at them and Sasuke quelled slightly. "And I think that means I get to pull rank. Leave."

With great reluctance, the two bowed and exited the room shooting worried and angry looks over their shoulders. Once she was sure they weren't listening at the door, Tsunade relaxed.

"Gaara of the Sand, I haven't heard anything from you in over five years. Why the sudden interest in my shinobi?"

"Yeah," Naruto couldn't hold himself back. "I haven't done anything to you!"

Gaara eyes were glazed and unfocused but he narrowed them in Naruto's direction. "What are you talking about? For the last five months we were locked up together. It was only two weeks ago you were released. I only escaped three days ago."

At this, Tsunade, Shikamaru and Naruto looked at him in disbelief.

"Five months?" Naruto echoed. "I may be stupid, but I think I'd remember that. I haven't seen you in years."

Gaara gripped the arms of the chair and pulled himself up. His hands were shaking but he lurched forward, almost falling out of the chair, and snarled accusingly at Naruto.

"Years?" Gaara's voice was low but dangerous. The tension in the room had risen. Tsunade unconsciously leaned back and Shikamaru's eyes grew calculating but he didn't move. "Years? _Years?"_

"Look," Naruto held up his hands. "I just had this memory weird thing happen, maybe I just forgot about it-"

Gaara's angry hadn't shrunken but it had stopped growing. The glare was still furious but less accusing. "Forgot?" His eye ticked.

"Yeah," Naruto smiled. "I mean, Tsunade is trying to fix it-"

The Gaara fell over. His hands dangled over the chair arms and his head dropped to his chest. They all froze, then Naruto sprung forward to catch him as he started to slide off the chair.

"He's asleep," Naruto shook the boy's shoulders but Gaara only snored softly. He raised his hand to slap him awake.

"Stop," Shikamaru finally stood up and walked across the office. "It's okay."

"What the hell do you mean it's okay," Naruto yelled. "You know what happens when he sleeps!"

"Just look," Shikamaru frowned, not used to being questioned. "There is no chakra coming from him. Something has suppressed his demon."

Tsunade had come from behind her desk pushed Naruto aside. Gaara flopped back in his seat, his head falling back over the backrest in a very awkward angle. She knelt in front of him and formed a quick succession of seals, stared intently at Gaara's chin. After a few minutes she relaxed and released the juutsu.

"He's right," she said. "Someone has placed a barrier around the takuni spirit." She smiled slightly. "It's recent, I'm sure not even Gaara knows about it. This is probably the first time he had slept peacefully."

Naruto slumped in relief.

"We'd better get him into a bed," Shikamaru observed. "Even without the power of his demon he's quite dangerous. The last thing we need is for him to wake up with a crick in his neck."

Tsunade had to use the chair to stand. She shot Naruto a look as he smirked.

"I got you this, brat," she reached into her penholder and tossed something small and shiny at him. He caught it. "If you are going to work for me you need something more in a couch. Think if it as a sign on bonus."

Naruto felt tears well up in his eyes as he clutched the key with both hands. "Tsunade-baba…"

Shikamaru jumped out of the way as the Hokage jumped on the chuunin and preceded to beat him with a scroll she had grabbed off the desk. Gaara didn't stir.

The apartment was near enough to the head quarters that Naruto would never have to worry about being late, but far enough away that carrying Gaara became a task. He received many stares but grinned as he readjusted the boy on his back.

It was on the top floor of the seven-story building, something that Naruto was sure Tsunade had arranged just to annoy him. There were only four doors along the side and his was the last. It looked clean enough on the outside. There was a paper attached to the door stating 'Uzumaki', a faded Welcome mat and black lamp attached to the wall to guide people to the door at night.

He dug out the key with one hand and, after some careful balancing, unlocked the door. He had to open it with his foot.

It was fairly cozy. The only window to the room was on the opposite wall and was on the wrong side to catch the fading sunlight. There was a counter and wall shelves were also on the opposite wall. A second counter with three tall stools was in the center of the room. On his right was a battered shelving unit and on his left was a carpeted square with a bookshelf. Across from the carpeted area the hallway began.

Naruto kicked off his shoes and stepped into the apartment. It was light enough to see and his hands were full so he padded across the wood floor to find a place for his guest.

The sliding door on the right was the bathing room with a nice looking bathtub. Naruto opened the left door with his toes to reveal a very small tatami bedroom. A bare desk and moveable closet were in two corner but there was no bed. There was a decent sized window with a planting shelf. Like the one in the kitchen it was facing the wrong side of the building to get the light from the setting sun.

Gaara wasn't much taller then Naruto but he was getting heavy on his back. He carried him back to the front room and lowered him on to the carpet. He lay back beside the slumbering boy and sighed. What had he expected? It was a brand new apartment; he was luck enough that the few pieces of furniture were there.

It wasn't like he hadn't slept on more uncomfortable places. The carpet was soft and fairly new so he stretched out and dozed.

Three hours later, Gaara woke up.

He felt very disoriented. A sharp stab of panic over took him and he scrambled to his feet, tottering as he stood up too fast.

The movement woke up Naruto but he sat up lazily, stretching to get the kinks out of his back. Gaara was standing over him, breathing fast and heavy with fear.

"What the hell happened?" the normally collected and cool face was young and venerable. It was nice to know that he was still somewhat human, Naruto decided. "Where the hell am I?"

"My new apartment," Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Like it?"

Gaara blinked at him. "Was I… dead?"

"Dead to the world," Naruto stood up.

"But then," Gaara stumbled over his words. "How am I alive?"

"Dead asleep I should say," Naruto waked over to the kitchen and started to open the drawers and fridge. "Damn, I don't have much money for food yet. Are you hungry?"

Gaara just stared at him looking very lost and confused. "Asleep? But, I- I don't understand."

"Yup," Naruto shut the last cupboard frowning. "Sleeping like a baby, like a normal person. Tsunade had a look at you while you were out. Someone locked away your demon."

Gaara held out and hand and nothing happened. The lost look was replaced with wonderment, then fear and finally anger. Naruto sat on one of the stood and leaned against the table. "What are you doing?"

"My sand," Gaara growled. "I-I thought it was just that place that blocked it…"

"Are you hungry?" Naruto asked again. It was probably a good idea to keep him distracted. He had just moved in after all and he doubted even the Hokage could coax the building owner to keep him if his roommate destroyed the place. "It's not that late, I'm sure if we head out and find someone they'll feed us."

Gaara blinked and dropped his hand, the confused look back. Naruto stepped into his shoes and Gaara just scowled as they walked out the door. Naruto locked it and they headed down the stairs.

They found Hinata and Sakura catching a late dinner after class and after some whining on Naruto's part they agreed to treat the two boys. Both the girls looked questionably at Gaara but from the sullen look they received they quietly (and wisely) accepted it.

On the way home he stopped by Ino and Shikamaru's to pick up his stuff. Shikamaru had been unhappy with the interruption threw the pack in his face before slamming the door.

Back at the apartment it was almost midnight and Naruto made the unhappy realization that they had no futon or even blankets to sleep on. All the stores were closed so he worked on unpacking his bag. He didn't have much, a few changes of clothes, scrolls he had collected, personal gifts from people he had met, his weapons and ninja gear and a medical kit.

Gaara had nothing so he sat on a stool staring hard at the wooden counter deep in thought. It took almost no time for Naruto to put everything away and he settled down beside Gaara. Even though it was only some things the apartment looked more permanent, more like a home then a casual resting place. Naruto decided he liked it.

Neither made a move to go to sleep. Gaara was too nervous to risk it again and Naruto wasn't about to let the ninja roam his brand new apartment and stare at him while he slept on the rug again.

"So," Naruto started. He leaned on his elbows and looked sideways at where Gaara was boring holes into the wood with his eyes. "You said we were together for five months. Where?"

Gaara was silent for a long time then asked, "What do you think of me?"

That started Naruto a bit but he recovered. "Well, I can't really say, I mean despite what you say I haven't seen you in years. I guess I… well I guess we are kind of the same. I mean, with the demon thing and the people hating us. And I don't hate me."

Naruto's voice trailed off. There was a silence that was neither uncomfortable but both felt the need to say something.

"Why are you asking me that?" Naruto broke first.

"Because," Gaara said.

"What do you think of me?" Naruto decided to turn the tables.

Gaara paused and looked right at him. The dark circles around the eyes stood out in stark difference to the paleness of his face and there was something indescribable in them.

"That's what you asked me," Gaara all but whispered. "Before. That's why I asked you."

Naruto was unused to such a serious air. It made his feet twitch and right now all he wished to do was leave. "What did you say? Then, I mean."

Gaara dropped his eyes and looked off to the right. He smiled slightly then shook his head. "Nothing special."

Still full of questions but feeling like he had dodged a bullet, Naruto decided to change the topic.

"Anyway, you still hadn't answered me, where did we spent 5 months together?"

"Near Konoha," Gaara replied dully. "There was a secret base underground that we had been captured in. I had been heading home and you had been heading here. We escaped easily but it was right into a trap-"

Naruto remembered a flash of light. He shook head to clear the image

"-our capturer had been waiting for us. We stepped onto a seal that locked our chakra. Taijutsuu was useless because there was no one to fight. We were kept in a cell about the size of this room for the entire time. They would flood this gas stuff into our room and it would paralyze me and knock you out. They were doing something on us but I don't ever remember what it was. One time I was back in the room and you were gone, they said they released you. I thought you had struck a deal with them," Gaara scowled. "But they got cocky and misjudged the gas needed to disable one person as opposed to two. When they came to get me I knocked them out and took off."

"Once I left that place I could use my chakra again," Gaara said when Naruto experimentally gathered chakra in his hand. "But the gas had messed with my system and I collapsed on the path. That's when your friends found me."

Gaara was surprised the word 'friends' slipped out so easily. Even after all those years words like that, words that were connected to such a feeling, usually made his stumble.

Naruto twiddled his thumbs for a minute before replying. "I don't remember. Not at all. When I woke up on the path I thought I just tripped or something. You're telling me it was five months? In the blink of an eye? Wouldn't I notice that? I mean the date today is-"

Naruto stopped. In the all the time he had been here he hadn't looked at the date. He groaned and put his head in his arms. He was such a moron. He had even suspected a memory juutsu. It would have been smart of him to try and figure out how much of his memory had been tampered with. He had gotten distracted first by the hospital and then Shikamaru and had forgotten.

The rest of the night passed by relatively fast. Naruto dropped off to sleep again from boredom at the counter and Gaara had let himself out to meditate on the roof. They went to head quarters fairly early and Naruto begged for a shift of guard duty.

So he and Gaara spent their morning lazing about the West gate. At noon they changed shift and Naruto had made enough to go shopping.

Gaara had followed him like a shadow all day but when they entered the busy marketplace he moved closer to Naruto's side. It had seemed strange to Naruto that Gaara had accepted him without question and had stayed so comfortably in his presence. Even the fact that he had listened to him babble on all day was odd but he supposed that if Gaara was right about the whole five month things it would make sense.

What was even stranger was the feeling he got from himself. It was like Gaara had been at his side for a long time. The past two weeks without him seemed unimaginable.

The pay was small so Naruto decided that the best thing to do would be to buy some things to make the apartment more comfortable. After all, his friends wouldn't let him _starve_.

The bedroom was much to cozy for a bed so they ended up at a futon store. The old grandmother watching the cash register watched them nervously, her hand gripping a large piece of wood under the register. Naruto smiled at her but didn't pay her any attention; Gaara stood in the corner and glared at her the whole time.

The door opened with a jingle of the bell and the old woman sagged in relief.

"Sasuke!" Naruto waved at the jounin. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Naru-" Sasuke looked startled and glanced uneasily at Gaara. He relaxed and a small smile crossed his face, making him look even more dark and mysterious. "Naruto, Gaara."

After picking out a blue futon with stars and spaceships on it (Gaara look horrified at the choice and Sasuke refrained from comment), the three went out for lunch, treated by Sasuke.

Gaara sat stonily slurping his ramen while Sasuke listened easily to Naruto prattle on.

"I meant to write you guys," Naruto was saying. "But the letters I did write always got rained on, or Hitomi kept on eating them. They were really good ones too. I did have a Konoha drinking buddy for a week when I was staying the south but I guess he forgot to give you guys my message."

"I knew you were alive," Sasuke said simply. "After all, I knew you would refuse to die while still being second best to me."

It was true too. Sasuke had always known that Naruto would come back. He always made sure to ask around when he was on a mission outside of the Fire country if anyone had seen the missing shinobi but never got truly worried. He was angry, of course, that Naruto had just never come home after the goodbyes. He had assumed that Naruto had been angry with him, or decided that the whole village was a thing of his past. When he had seen him in Tsunade's office and he hadn't given him more then a passing glance Sasuke had gotten angry. But during the briefing he got the impression that Naruto had disappeared to disappear. Not because of any personal feeling, but that life had caught up with him and he had just been busy.

Sasuke could forgive that. After all, he had always been too busy for Naruto. He remembered when he had chased after Naruto that one time when he had heard that Itachi was after him. It was Naruto who had been fine and Sasuke who had been beaten. Naruto could take care of himself.

"So, Gaara is staying with you?' Sasuke asked and Naruto paused.

"I guess so," he looked over to where Gaara was quietly choking on his ramen. "I mean we never actually said anything but I kind of assumed that he would be. Right?"

Gaara, now recovered, nodded mutely.

"Ah, crap," Naruto cursed. "I still only have that one futon."

"I have a spare you can borrow," Sasuke said. Naruto looked at him strangely, it wasn't like Sasuke to just volunteer things. "What? I do. Moron, fine then, I'll just keep it and you can sleep on the floor."

"No, no," Naruto stammered. "I mean, thanks."

It was a long walk back to Sasuke's house and an even longer one back. Gaara and Naruto staggered under the weight of the two futons and blankets. They had to rest after every level of the apartment building but eventually made it.

"Whew," Naruto dropped the futon and it's bundle on the ground and collapsed on the hard wood floor. Gaara lurched in after and dumped Sasuke's secondhand on next to it. "I've never been this out of shape."

Gaara panted but silently agreed. They pulled the two futons into the small bedroom. Sasuke's was a mix of pale greens and plain, which Gaara instantly preferred over Naruto's spaceships.

"We're going to need to get rid of this desk," Naruto commented. "Otherwise they wont both fit in. But where to put the desk…"

"Out the window," Gaara said dryly from where he was resting on the piles of blankets. Naruto looked at the desk thoughtfully. Eventually it was dragged out into the hall and left at the back behind the door. The futons barely fit in together but they managed it.

"Are you hungry?" Naruto asked. They were sitting on the stools again and the sun was settling. "I think if we leave now we can run into someone again."

Gaara shrugged but slid off the stool. As they walked down the stairs Naruto could already sense that this was going to be more troublesome then it was worth. It might even been a good idea to get Kakashi to teach him that teleporting juutsu.

They actually had to work to find someone to feed them but Kiba eventually agreed, with some help from Hinata. Once again, Naruto chatted easily with stories of his adventures while Gaara sat quietly and invisibly.

As Naruto took more and more short C-rank missions their income slowly grew. Naruto never commented on having to support Gaara and Gaara never really knew how to thank him. There was one day where Naruto broke down and took a mission that would take him away from the village over night.

Gaara was getting progressively better at sleeping but never slept more then two days in a row and usually only for a few hours at a time. His tanuki demon had given him strength before. Now, though, the energy he received through their link was dormant and Gaara needed to consciously think about using it. It was a strain on him mentally and physically but he wasn't ready to let down his defenses enough to sleep, even with Naruto around. Much of Naruto's paycheck went to ramen and coffee.

"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Naruto was packing his meager bag while Gaara sat on the stool with his legs dangling like a child. "I mean, Sakura or Sasuke are willing to take you out for dinner, or Shikamaru said you could stay with them. Now that you're kind of sleeping and all-"

"I'll be fine," Gaara said, a hint of a smile on his face. Naruto stopped packing for a minute and looked sheepish.

"I know, I know, it's just that I've never seen you cook before, I don't want you to starve or get lonely or something…"

"I'll be fine,' Gaara repeated. Naruto finally was finished and after a soft push out the door, Gaara was left on his own.

He had been having a strange guilty feeling ever since he had started to stay with Naruto. He felt like a dead weight. It wasn't like he couldn't work; he was a trained ninja after all. His own country hadn't contacted him, probably assuming that he was dead and their troubles were over. Gaara wasn't about to disprove that. Still, at least in Sand he had been independent.

After Yoshimare had died, Gaara had stood alone in his heart and but strong in spirit. He looked after himself, he had learned not to rely on anyone. But those months with Naruto forced him to change. He found he liked not needing to worry about money, about food, about having his personality being eaten away. But that didn't mean he wanted to become a useless object.

A few short hours after Naruto had left, Gaara was bored and left for the only place he really knew, the head quarters. Umako didn't even question him when he walked casually into the Hokage's office.

As usual, Shikamaru was absently going through report scrolls and writing curt recommendations at the bottom. Tsunade wasn't even pretending to be working. She was carefully molding chakra on her nose and balancing pens. There was a clatter when he walked in and she lost her concentration.

"Gaara," she smirked. "Lonely all ready?"

"Is there something I can do?" he didn't even bother with a greeting. It was hard enough going somewhere without Naruto there to speak for him, he wasn't going to bother being polite.

Shikamaru motioned to the chair that Naruto used to occupy in the corner and Gaara carried to the large desk.

"Read through these, correct the spelling and grammar, then sign your name on this line," Shikamaru passed him a bundle of scroll. "When you're done I have more."

Shinobi Academy had focused mainly on shinobi teachings, physical training and mental preparation. They did not focus on penmanship.

Shikamaru took the scrolls as he finished with then, scanned them then wrote comments at the bottom and occasionally drew a frowny face at certain parts of the report. Then it was thrown into a pile to be delivered back to the person who wrote the report and it was on to the next.

It seemed to Gaara that Tsunade spent a majority of the time avoiding paperwork, playing Go with Shikamaru and playing on a hand held gambling game that, by the sound of it, she lost frequently.

They stopped at noon for lunch. Gaara had been out around the town and generally knew where everything was but he didn't have any money. There was food at the apartment but as Naruto had pointed out he didn't even know how to make instant ramen. He was about to just leave the hot street and go back into the office, skipping lunch, when Shikamaru came up behind him with his hands shoved in his pocket.

"Come on, I usually go to this stand near the West gate," Shikamaru headed off down the crowed street and, not knowing what else to do, Gaara followed. They didn't talk as they eat, but listened to the older men also seated on the stools in the shade of the cloth roof.

After a while, Shikamaru threw some bills on the table and they left back towards the office. They worked with the same rhythm at the work until about 5 o'clock. Shikamaru just closed the last scroll, tied it up and woke up Tsunade.

"Do you want something to eat?" Shikamaru once again sounded like the words were being dragged from his mouth. Gaara shook his head and Shikamaru was gone before he could change his mind. Not that he was going too.

People moved away from him as he walked down the crowded market. It was getting darker and market foods were half priced so the streets were filled with over stressed mothers dragging their cranky children.

Gaara didn't feel like going back to the apartment and he didn't feel like being alone so he moved from stand to stand looking over the food and eavesdropping on mundane conversations before he found a used book store.

Tsunade had slipped him from bills, casually telling him it was for the work he had done that day, then spirited out before he could say anything. Ignoring the suspicious eyes following his back as he roamed the shelves, he picked a thick volume at random and paid for it.

The stars were out when he finally made it back to the apartment and he settled on the rug. In the time they had been living there Naruto had managed to accumulate several piece of furniture. One was the low table in the middle of the carpet. It had been Sakura's first table when she moved out of her parents' house and had since moved on to bigger and better furniture. Another was Kakashi's old lamp shaped like a stripper on a pole that Naruto adored and Gaara detested. Iruka had donated several food appliances and some old reference books Gaara had read and Naruto ignored. Sasuke had all ready given them the extra futon and Shikamaru had shown up one day with another bookshelf that took up the wall behind the door.

Hinata stocked their medicine cabinet; Kiba had brought a few homemade blankets. Gaara had been startled one day when Rock Lee had shown up while Naruto was out on a mission and shoved a weighted pack filled with weapons (and two green jumpsuits that Gaara had blanched at and Naruto was delighted with).

Through his salary Naruto outfitted them with the basics but the few frivolous items in the apartment had all come from Naruto's travels and there was nothing here that belonged to Gaara.

Until now that is. Gaara settled down with his new book titled _Icha Icha Paradise: Collection of Best Works._

It was quite late and he had all ready had three cups of black coffee to fight off sleep when the door knocked. Paranoid, Gaara set his book down and reached for the shiruken hidden under the low table before standing and silently gliding over to the door.

The lamp outside was on and he could see the shadows of feet peeking through the door. There was more then one person but no one was talking so Gaara tucked the four sharp stars under his sleeve along his wrist and stepped down to open the door.

As his feet connected with the cool stone floor he heard a roar in his ears as he activated the seal half inside and half out before passing out.


	3. Don't SWEAR! We're only TWELVE ya know!

**_Arg, if I go back to short jump back and forth plot device I'm going to kill myself. I want to outgrow that. Bear with me as I wean myself off the habit. _**

**_And, oh my god, there are THREE, count 'em, THREE new characters! Run in terror! Actually, I have a very good track record for Mary Sues, 0. And I haven't even named them yet! I worked really hard to get Blondie's dialogue right. I think it's hilarious but I also have a strange sense of humour not many people get ( )_**

**_I hope this lives up to the expectations. I tossed and turned over this for a while but I think it's okay. The real stuff happens soon. I don't want a monster of a story by any means. _**

CHAPTER 3

Naruto was back mid afternoon, not the slightest bit tired and bouncing on the balls of his feet in front of the Hokage's desk. She was leaning forward on her desk looking highly amused. Shikamaru just leaned back in his chair and rested his feet on a stack of papers that almost reached Naruto's waist.

"Brat, calm yourself down, you'd think I was offering you my job."

"Please, no," Shikamaru muttered.

"Are you serious?" Naruto ignored both their comments. "I'm not even jounin yet, how did you get it approved?"

"Approved?" Tsunade snorted. "I'm the approval committee. As if those old farts could stop me from doing what I want."

Naruto rocked back and forth, too excited to stand still. "My own genin team," he started to pace. "I'm going to be the best leader ever! I'll teach 'em all my Sexy transformation then we can team up and prank Iruka, man that would be awesome-"

"Hey!" Tsunade suddenly had a flash of horror.

"-and we can raid Sasuke's house and paint 'Dobe' everywhere-"

"Now wait just a minute-"

"-and then I'll get them to team up and we can see what's under Kakashi's mask-"

"Well," Tsunade relented. "I guess so. But this is only temporary."

"But still!" Naruto wasn't about to be brought down. "Finally, all those years of learning pranks and I get to pass them on."

"For the time being," she cut in. "Until their real teacher is back from his mission."

"I know I know," Naruto said flippantly. "But what about parents? Even if it's not for real parents aren't going to want me teaching their kids."

"The parents will be no problem," Tsunade sobered. "None of the kids have any."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Shikamaru said unsympathetically. He took his feet of the stack of papers and hefted them. Naruto staggered under their weight when he dumped them into his arms. "You need to fill these out by tomorrow."

"W-what?" Naruto said.

Shikamaru and Naruto found an empty office across the hall but Tsunade could still hear loud bickering. She tried to ignore it and fake work. When that didn't work she climbed out the window, something she hadn't been able to do since Shikamaru started working for her, and, after altering her appearance somewhat, slipped into a nearby gambling hall.

She liked to visit here after the office was officially closed. The job of Hokage never had off hours but at least there was a time where it had to be urgent to see her. She missed being able to just walk into a bar. In Konoha she was Hokage. Without a disguise no one would gamble with her, or drink with her. It was why she never wanted to have this job in the first place; she wasn't cut out for diplomacy or tact. She relied on Shikamaru for that. But she was a step up from her other teammate and even she wasn't so heartless as to leave Konoha in the hands of a nomadic pervert.

After losing money on a poker game, an ox pull and three rounds of Go Fish, she decided luck wasn't with her today and went to get a drink.

"Double whiskey," she called to the bar tender. "And a shot of tequila after that."

She took the first shot quickly to ease the sting of losing then tried to build up her courage for the tequila. A man sat down next to her.

"Shouldn't you be working?"

"Shouldn't you be demeaning women somewhere?" she shot back then downed her drink. She shuddered and coughed as the alcohol raced through her.

"Ouch," Jiraiya waved the bar tender over. He was of course looking the same as usual, she thought bitterly. He wasn't hiding from his subjects so he could get hammered without losing face. "Another beer and a wine spritzer for the lady."

"Make that two beers," she snapped.

"That deer little advisor of yours isn't going to be happy," the old man laughed too loudly at his own joke. "Deer, dear, get it?"

"Yeah," Tsunade scowled. "Funny. What do you want?"

The bartender returned with their order and Jiraiya made a show of taking a long drag from his glass. "I hear you gave the kid some kids."

"Dammit, I just told himself," she cursed. "How the hell could you know all ready?"

"Never underestimate the shinobi rumour mill," Jiraiya grinned cheesily and not for the first time Tsunade wanted nothing more then to smack him. He took another sip, trying to regain his composure. "As I was saying, are you sure that's a good idea? The kid's barely out of diapers as it is."

"I known," she sighed. "Yo, barkeep! Another tequila!"

"Come on, tell me what's on your mind," Jiraiya prodded. "Trying to give him a leg up on the rest of his classmates? Bring about a show of confidence? Because that's favouritism and no one is going to like that."

"Trust me when I say it's not a favour," she laughed as she got her shot and drained it in one go. This time Jiraiya thumped her hard as she choked but she relished in the pain. "These kids need him. And I think he needs them too. He's settling back in but," she paused. "It's been over a month and he hasn't said anything about becoming Hokage, hasn't asked for anything but a C-ranked mission. All he does is hang out with Gaara and that's it."

Jiraiya took another swing and she took another sip of hers, regretting it when she remembered how much she hated beer.

"I don't think he's bitter," she said, staring at the brown liquid like it was a looking mirror. "But I don't know if he has the fire anymore. I want him to stay here this time."

"Typical woman," Jiraiya barked. "When it looks like a man is going to dash you throw kids into the mix."

She upturned the beer onto his head and waved the bartender over as he sputtered beside her.

Gaara woke up with a splitting headache. It was still odd to wake up and he felt a stab of fear before remembering that he could indeed sleep now. Usually when he woke it was from the sun hitting his face or because Naruto had rolled on him while they were sleeping. Either way, he always woke to his pale green futon, to Naruto's tousled hair and to the cramped tatami room. He fully expected to way up to that now.

Instead he felt another jolt of panic when he woke up to a room he wished to never see again. Small, enclosed, the walls were a soothing beige. It was mostly bare with a pile of white and navy blankets in the corner (that was where he currently was) and had two small bookshelves with several tattered copies of historical literature. The floor was wall-to-wall soft peach carpeting and there was no darkness anywhere. He and Naruto had spent a lot of time debating where the light came from but they had both decided it was there simply to drive them crazy and to knock out their internal clocks.

He stood and almost fell. He had spent too long in this room, far too long, and he didn't want to spend another minute. There was no use exploring it, he and Naruto had gone over every part of it in the five months they had lived there and there was nothing to find. Small round vents they could barely stick a finger through let in air and the paralyzing gas, a metal flap in one corner opened with food every once and a while but never at regular times. There was no use escaping through that, even Gaara who was fairly slender couldn't fit his shoulders through.

He paced it anyway, tugging at his hair.

When he and Naruto were first placed here it had been bad. They spent the few while ignoring each other (well, Gaara had, Naruto spent it annoying him). After the first experiment Naruto had been so sick from the gas Gaara was sure he was going to die and he had realized that no matter how much the Konoha chuunin annoyed him it was a hell of a lot better having some one there with him then being alone.

But now he was alone.

Angry, he kicked the wall but no chakra formed. He kicked it again, and again, then started to throw punches until his fists were bloody and he sank down, smearing the blood on the soft beige walls, burying his head in his arms, taking shuddering breaths.

Naruto arrived back at the apartment some time after noon. He had spent an hour filling out paperwork before he convinced Shikamaru to let him take the applications home and have Gaara help him fill them out. Umako, the desk chuunin, had told him that Gaara had stopped by the day before but hadn't seen him today. Naruto was a little worried that Gaara was just sitting in the apartment, doing nothing, waiting for him to get home.

It was a lot of paperwork and it didn't fit in his travel bag so he lugged it in his arms all the way up the stairs. He dropped it when he went to unlock the door and spend ten minutes cursing and gathering it up before the wind blew it away.

"Honey!" Naruto called when he finally had all the papers and the door open. "I'm home!"

But there was no answer.

Once the door was shut and he didn't have to fear the wind, he dropped the papers and sent them sliding across the polished wood floor without a care. He sat on the step and struggled with his boots, giving a sigh of relief when he got one off and wiggled his toes.

"Gaara!" he called as he worked on his other boot. "Quit joking man, I need some help with some paperwork or Shikamaru will have my ass! You'll never guess what Tsunade did! Gaara?"

Rid of his boots, he stood and went to check the bedroom. Empty. The bathroom was unlocked as was the toilet room and they were empty too. Gaara's futon was rolled up next to his own and when he checked the sliding compartment in the room all of Gaara's new clothes were still folded neatly. Confused, Naruto headed back into the main room.

He picked up the hard covered book on the low table and dropped it quickly when he read the title. He picked up all the papers again, now hopelessly out of order, and put them on the kitchen counter. Then he went to the roof.

It was easy enough to get up there. The window in their room was plenty big to step through and climbing the stone wall wasn't much of a challenge. It had the advantage of being the tallest building in that corner of the town, which was the one saving grace of climbing those stairs. Gaara often went up there to meditate.

But he wasn't up there now. Naruto scanned the town for bright red hair and saw none. He convinced himself that Gaara had just gotten hungry and went for something to eat as he climbed back into the apartment. Food sounded good so Naruto shoved on his boots on again and went looking.

Gaara wasn't at the ramen place, he wasn't at the soba place they went sometimes, nor was he at his favourite yakiniku restaurant. The corner bakery that would sell to them hadn't seen him either and the takoyaki stand was full of people but not of Gaara. It was nearly three when Naruto gave up and settled for a stand up oyakudon at a shop in the other end of town.

He had just finished shoveling the last of the rice into his mouth when he spotted Sasuke looking at some fish across the street. He paid quickly and jogged to catch up as Sasuke started walking away.

"Yo, Sasuke!" the yell caught the attention of the most of the people but they just turned away at the sight of him. Sasuke, however, stopped and waited. "Hey man, have you see Gaara?"

"No," Sasuke shoved his hands in his pocket. "Sakura and I stopped by this morning to see if he wanted to get breakfast but no one was home."

"I have no idea where he is then," Naruto groaned. "Crap."

"He's a grown man," Sasuke frowned. "And a highly trained fighter. I'm sure he's fine. He probably just wanted to train."

"Maybe," Naruto went back to scanning the crowd, not really listening. "But that doesn't seem like him."

"He's been with you for three weeks," Sasuke pointed out. The flow of people around them veered to avoid touching them. Sasuke was kind of enjoying the absence of pushing and shoving. "He's probably bored."

"If you see him, tell him I'm looking for him," Naruto ignored the jab.

"Sure," Sasuke snorted. "But you're being stupid."

"Whatever, Sasuke," Naruto pulled a childish face and dodged Sasuke's swing before dashing away.

He returned to the apartment when it was getting dark and finally the stress of the mission caught up with him. He hauled the papers to the low table and turned on the stripper lamp, only breaking for ramen at dinner. He gave up around one in the morning and went to bed.

He was worried but went to work the next day. He tried handing in the crumpled, half finished papers but ended up having Shikamaru breathe down his neck as he filled them out ('Properly this time!'). Umako, Shikamaru and Tsunade hadn't seen Gaara. Around noon Hinata stopped by to drop off her report from her latest mission.

"Sorry Naruto," she shrugged. "I'll ask around."

"You'd think the way people avoid us they would be able to track our every movement," Naruto leaned back and kicked his boots on Tsunade's desk. The Hokage glared but was cradling her head and wasn't in the mood for loud yelling.

"I think I'm going to spend tomorrow looking for him," Naruto sighed.

"Tomorrow you have to meet your genin," Shikamaru looked up from Naruto's half finished forms. "That is, if you finish those papers."

"Crap."

He managed to get them done before midnight and crashed on his futon. Without Gaara there to wake him up, he slept in until noon and cursed as he ran to the field where he was to meet his team, still pulling his boots on as he stumbled down the stairs.

He was three hours late when he crested the hill of the field they had been assigned and all ready he could tell they were off to a bad start.

"You!" Of the three it was easy to tell who the loudest would be. She was the tallest, a blonde girl with messy, curly pigtails. She had freckles all over her face, not just a brush across her nose, and her blue eyes were blazing. She planted her little fists on her hips. "We've been here for_ever_! Do you know what time we had to get up? And now you're late?"

"Hey little girl," Naruto tried to catch his breath. "Nice to meet you too."

"Well it's not nice to meet _you_," she sneered. "I can't _wait_ until our _real_ teacher gets here. But I guess even _you_ are better then _nothing_."

"Damn, you're cranky," Naruto muttered but she heard him anyway.

"Don't _swear_!" she scolded. "We're only _twelve_ ya'know!"

Naruto suddenly thought this whole genin thing was a horrible idea. "I can't believe I'm giving up my Saturday for this."

The girl threw up her hands in disgust. Her clothes were worn, the pants were ripped and leggings could be seen through the holes. She wore the mesh black top that all genin seemed to find with a loose white shirt over it that hung on her and made her look even thinner and smaller. It kept falling off one shoulder and she angrily hauled it back up. "Well _I_ can't _believe_ I gave up my _sleep_ for _you_!"

Naruto glanced over at the other two, another girl and a boy. The girl had a red hair that shone like a new copper tile and it was braided neatly. She bit her lip nervously and glanced from the blonde girl to Naruto before dropping her green eyes to the ground. Her yellow dress was faded and came to her knees with white leggings and she couldn't look less like a ninja if she tried.

The boy had dark, coffee coloured skin and midnight black hair that curled close to his head. His ratty pants were like the blonde girl's and but he wore a short sleeved green shirt. He sat on a rock looking amused.

"I can't deal with this," Naruto wrinkled his nose and looked to the sky for inspiration. If only Gaara was here, at least then he would have back up. Gaara was so much scarier then he would ever be. He snapped his fingers. "Okay, I got a test! Well, a mission really."

"A _mission_?" the blonde made a face. "All _ready_? Isn't that kind of, ya know, _dangerous_?"

"Look _Ms Worry Wart_," Naruto looked pointedly at her. "If you don't want danger, don't be a ninja. Now come, I don't have all day to explain this to you."

He started off, half expecting them to not follow. But after a few minutes all three were jogging to catch up.

"My name isn't _Wart_," the blonde spat out. "Why don't you actually _talk_ to us, _hm_? Learn our _names_?"

"I don't need your names," Naruto said. "You're Blondie."

"Oh real _obvious_."

Naruto got a flash of understanding of why Tsunade had pushed for him to have this group. It wasn't because there were no other jounin, or because he could relate to them being an orphan himself. It was because she hated him and wanted revenge by giving him a kid who was more annoying then himself. At least, he didn't remember himself being so annoying.

The little red head trotted meekly next to him and the dark skinned boy followed up at the back, looking at everything but the group. Blondie barely took a breath.

"And Araki-san told us you were _evil_ or something and now I _believe_ her because a nice person wouldn't let three _sweet,_ _charming_ and _innocent_ little _kids_ wait three _hours_ for them to show up! I bet you were _drinking_ and now you're _hung over_ and now you're taking us to a _bar_ where we are _underage_ and you are going to make us take a _drinking _test or wash _dishes_ because you need to pay your _tab_-"

Naruto walked faster in the hopes the girl wouldn't be able to talk while running.

"And _now_ you are trying to _get away_! What kind of _adult_ are you anyway? A _lousy_ one I think, I mean a _good _adult wouldn't make us _kids _run on an _empty stomach_, which by the _way_, is _empty_ because you were so _late_-"

"Would you rather I made you run on a full stomach so you could puke," Naruto snapped. "You, other girl. Which do you want, empty or full stomach?"

The girl was jogging steadily at his side to keep up but faltered when she realized he was addressing her. "Uh…"

"Oh _great_!" the blonde started up again. "Turn us _against_ each other so we have to rely on _you_ and we can't team up and get you _fired_! Real _smart_!"

At the pace Naruto was setting they made it into town in record time and he ducked into his favourite ramen place, trying his best to ignore the three tagalongs. He was starving for the breakfast he had missed and settled on his stool, waiting impatiently for the owners to get around to taking his order.

He realized it had suddenly grown quiet. He glanced at the three kids, standing in a row, all looking at him with wide eyes. Hungry eyes. He reached protectively for his wallet.

"What?"

"N-nothing," it was the first thing the red head had said beyond 'uh'. "W-we can just wait outside."

As if they rehearsed it, all three turned slowly and started to make their way out of the cool shade of the stand. All the patrons of the restaurant were watching and several glared at Naruto with more hatred then normal.

Naruto dropped his head to the counter with a solid thump. He recognized that move. The wide eyes, the trembling voice, the dejected walk. But no one ever looked murderous at the person who had been refusing to feed _him_. Still, he was all ready a murderous, evil, heartless monster; he didn't want to add 'starves little children' to the list.

"Oh get back here," he sighed and checked his cash. "Order something."

"Miso ramen," the blonde was all ready seated and giving her order to the owner.

"Yasai ramen, please," the red head said shyly.

"Buuta ramen," the boy's voice was accented but all ready booming.

"The usual," Naruto sighed and rested his elbows on the counter. He turned to look at his charges. "But don't expect this again. Brats."

If there was one time Blondie shut up, Naruto decided, it was when her mouth was full.

Naruto's plan was to get rid of them while he looked around for Gaara. It wouldn't be too hard, they all ready didn't seem to like him and he could worry about bonding and all that after he had Gaara back. He didn't just up and leave after all; his things were still here.

While they finished up their lunches, Naruto scribbled three lists on a scrap of parchment the owner had given to him. He torn them into three separate pieces and handed one to each.

"Take those and go, the two back to my apartment with all the items gets a prize," Naruto said. "Now scram."

They all glanced at the lists.

"Shiitake mushrooms?" Blondie scowled. "Chinese cabbage? This is a grocery list!"

"Konoha's Com-comprehensive Guide to Vege-i-tation?" the red haired girl struggled over the hard kanji. "Much, Ado? About Nothing?"

"A mint plant?" the boy looked up and glared at him. "I am not a servant!"

"I thought this was a _mission_," Blondie's voice started to catch the attention of the patrons again. "And I thought _you _were a serious _ninja_, not a lazy _deadbeat_!"

All ready used to the hostile attention of everyone around him, Naruto did nothing to calm her down. "I have my reasons. But remember, it's a race. First two win a prize. Three, two, one, start!"

"We don't have any money," Blondie crossed her arms triumphantly, sure that she finally cornered him.

"You haven't done any work," Naruto shot back. He stood and said, "Now I'll see you all later. And the one who doesn't finish in the top two, say hello to another year in the Ninja Academy," Naruto mentally congratulated himself on remembering his own first day as a genin. Arrive late? Check. Give them an impossible task? Check. Turn them against each other? Check.

Blondie went to argue again but Naruto disappeared in a flourish of wind, leaving behind an ordinary looking stick.


	4. You are trying to make us look stupid

**_Wow. I thought that by now this would have lost my interest but apparently not. I'm getting quite a bit out of it which makes me happy _**

**_Also, because I have waaaaaay too much time on my hands, I had decided to create an_ Akumako Reader's Guide_. I know I use a lot of Japanese and such that people don't understand and I don't want to force them to flip up and down through footnotes and I don't want to take out the Japanese so this guide explains all of those little translations plus what I was thinking as I was writing. It goes into more depth and discussion about the things I use. I don't know if this will have an adverse affect though, I may start to use too much symbolism and rely on the guide to explain it rather then have the meaning be understood my the story only._ **

**_So in an attempt to minimize this I'm going to write the chapter as I usually do, proofread, proofread, butcher the story, proofread, proofread, change everything around again, proofread, then write the guide. It won't take longer or anything, just everything will be more thoughtful._**

**_To get to the reading guide, go to_ my profile _to_ my home page _which is my live journal. Under_ my memories _there is one entry, that is it._ **

CHAPTER 4

Naruto sat on a roof nearby as the three kids searched the stands around the ramen place, looking for him in vain. The blonde gave up first and left the other two. Deciding he had watched enough, he took off to the northern end of the city. He had his friends scorning the people of the city for Gaara, the only thing left was to look around the forest and the north was as good place as any.

He and Gaara went out and trained every so often, whenever the mood would strike, so he knew that Gaara was familiar with the surrounding forest. In the back of his mind he hoped Gaara was out there, meditating like he always did when something was bothering him and couldn't sleep.

It had happened twice since Sasuke and Kakashi had brought him to the village. The first time happened in the first week back. Naruto was still getting used to the red head trailing him wherever he went. He was still trying to figure out which shop owners decided they needed his money more then they hated him, which were too new to the country to know to hate him, and which had decided they hated him even more for not dying on his travels.

Gaara had no sweet tooth to speak of and coffee was still a luxury import. Very few stores sold it, and only two sold it as beans that could be made at home. Gaara's self-enforced insomnia was becoming harder and harder to maintain without the help of his Tanuki demon and no shop was open all hours of the night. Of the two one was a wholesale exotic import store that thought the prestige of selling imported goods made them able to inflate their prices beyond practicality. But Gaara wanted his coffee and Naruto was trying to find common ground for them to live with and they walked in.

Even Naruto had been unprepared for the shouting. At first he thought it was aimed towards him but the dark skinned woman was screaming and pointing at Gaara, her voice irritating and foreign to Naruto's ears. Disgusted, he turned to leave and saw Gaara's face. The other boy went pale, paler then his normal fair tone, and Naruto had to grab his elbow and drag him backwards out of the tent.

Gaara spent three days on the roof, sunken deep in a trance, not coming out for anything: food, water, or sleep. Finally, deeply sun burnt and shaking he crawled back into the apartment when he collapsed on the wood floor and slept for ten hours straight, his current record.

The second time was less severe. It had been a week ago and Gaara had finally tired of following Naruto on D-ranked missions (Naruto thought the final straw was when he and Gaara had to chase down an old man's pet pig and Gaara had face planted in a deep puddle of mud and spat wet sand out of his teeth for the next three hours. It was the first time Naruto had seen him curse.). Gaara refused to come with Naruto after that and instead meditated on the roof for a full day and night before Naruto managed to coax him back into the apartment with a promise of yakiniku. Three days later Naruto had left for his overnight mission.

He hoped that Gaara had just gotten tired of the headquarters, or maybe something had happened on the way home that no one saw and had just decided to take a break for city life. Naruto knew that Gaara was far from a considerate roommate and wouldn't even think to leave a note. Hopefully Naruto would find him lost in his thoughts and unmindful of the time.

Once he was far enough away from the village he found a quiet branch and settled down. He wasn't nearly as good at using his meditation to find people, like Gaara was, but he had to try at least.

It was easier to focus now that he was out of the city. It helped that though the Tanuki demon was trapped it was still there and Naruto's own Kitsune sought out it instinctively. Still, he had to focus really hard.

Sounds, feelings, started to drop away, he was letting them slide off his skin like water. He tuned out a group of jounin sparring near by. Then a class from the Academy was poking through the foliage, watched diligently by a chuunin. A bird called to his mate. A fish swished its tail in the stream under him. A rabbit dug a hole at the base of a tree. A squirrel gnawed through a nut a branch above him. The wind ticked his hair and mad ehim want to scratch. The sun was starting to burn through the leaves of the tree. The bark dug into him through his thick clothes. The sun made him sweat. The sweat trickled down his neck and started to slowly inch its way down his back-

Frustrated, Naruto's eye opened and the world he was trying so hard to suppress erupted in a loud clatter as he allowed his ears to hear and his eyes to see. He scratched his neck, finding relief from the sweat. He shed his jacket tried again.

This time the world slipped away faster and he sunk deep into himself. He retreated from the world, until his skin hummed and felt without him, and sank deep, deep into the clear blue inside himself.

There.

Naruto dropped back into himself, snapping his eyes open and was surprised to see the sun setting. But he had found it. He looked to the west. There. That faint twinge of red. It was buried under the hundreds of chakra signatures but now that he had it fixed in his mind it throbbed like a second heartbeat under his skin.

He stood and fell almost falling from the tree. He managed to catch himself by molding chakra on the bottom of his feet at the last minute. He started off to the west, before the sunset finally registered in reality. Crap, he needed to meet with the brats.

"Sorry Gaara," he said softly and turned to head back into the city.

He took stock of the sight in front of his door before making an appearance. His nerves were too wound from the intense chakra concentration to climb the stairs so he was perched on the five-story apartment building across from his own. He grinned.

All three of the kids were sitting in front of the apartment door. Blondie was slumped on the door, her neck tilted at an awkward angle as she slept and only the doorframe kept her from falling over.

The red head was curled on the welcome mat, her legs tucked into her dress for warmth so only her buckled shoes showed and she had her head pillowed on a stack of books.

The boy was still awake, struggling vainly to keep his head up as he sat leaning on the wall beside the door, under the light, surrounded by a jungle of ferns and flowers.

It was easy to jump from the fifth story roof to the railing on his seventh floor building and fun to see all three jump to their feet and scatter their treasure hunt items.

"You!" the blonde girl's hatred for him had only seemed to climb.

"Yup," Naruto grinned, still perched on the rail. "Me. So, who won?"

"Me," the boy was proud.

"I was second," the blonde glared at him. The last girl remained silent and stared at her shoes.

"Good for you," Naruto jumped to the ground and weaved in between them to open the door. "I'll show you where to put everything."

The boy huffed in irritation as he gathered up his plants that were now slightly trampled from when they had all jumped up with surprise. Blondie picked up her bag with a smirk at the other two and stepped into the apartment first. The last girl just picked up her heavy stack of books dejected.

The blonde stopped after kicking off her sandals as Naruto turned on the light. "You can't use _that_! She's almost _naked_!"

Naruto ignored her and went to open the fridge. His stomach was grumbling but the only things in there was a sorry looking carrot, some left over yakitori that was starting to smell, three cartons of milk he had been meaning to throw out and some sliced beef he had bought before he had left on his mission.

"Give me that bag," he gestured to the blonde who scowled and almost threw it at him. Her cheeks were bright red and she was steadfastly looking everywhere but the lamp.

Naruto started to throw out the rotten food and replacing it with the fresh produce from the bag. He could almost feel the three pairs of eyes glaring at his back while he took his time, but kept meticulously finding places for everything.

Finally, when he felt like he had annoyed them enough, he grabbed a few choice vegetables and the beef and put them on the counter. He called over his shoulder, "Put the books on the empty shelf and the plants can go over by that window. Once you're done you can all go."

"No!" Blondie almost burst out. Naruto didn't even pause. She stomped her bare foot on the floor. "I _said_ no! We aren't going! You _suck_! We can't go back _now_! It's way to late to walk in the dark _alone_. What about Hanako and that _totally_ bogus thing about the Academy? You _can't_ send her _back_! I _demand_ an explanation!"

"Fine, fine, have a seat," Naruto motioned to the three stools lined up along the counter. "I guess you all want dinner too."

"Araki-san serves dinner at seven and _not_ after," Blondie scowled. "And you made us wait until _eight_! If you _don't_ feed us we'll _starve_.""

The boy nodded and the other girl looked at her hands.

"Hanako's aunt and uncle aren't even _home_," Blondie supplied as well.

Naruto finished cutting up what he needed and placed them strategically around the pan. "It's going to take a minute," he sat on the kitchen counter and looked at the three kids sitting at the little kitchen island across from him.

"Does only Blondie speak or what?" he asked.

"They _would_ speak if you would actually _talk_ to us-"

"Other little girl," Naruto cut off the blonde before she started another rant. "What's your name?"

"H-hanako," she muttered. "Ishimoto Hanako."

"And little boy," Naruto glanced at him. "You?"

"Musad bin Suoud," the boy looked at him defiantly. "And I am not little."

"That's an unusual name," Naruto checked the pan, which was starting to shimmer. "From the Sand country?"

"Yes," Musad's voice was accented which made it sound deeper then a little kid's should be. "My father was a merchant. We traveled to many places."

It sounded like there was more to that sentence but nothing more was said, so Naruto turned to check on the food.

""My name is Kaida," Blondie burst out, not wanting to be forgotten. "Daida Kaida."

"I'll remember that," Naruto laughed. "It rhymes."

"What a genius," she muttered under her breath and the little red head, Hanako, hid a grin by ducking her head.

Naruto deemed the food ready and turned down the flames on the stove. He rummaged around for the plates, grateful that they had been forced to buy them in a set of four. He and Gaara had disagreed on the pattern. Gaara had walked around the store scowling and holding a set of plain, sky blue plates with matching chopsticks, bowls and rice bowls. They were cheap, efficient and impersonal. Naruto and him argued for half an hour: Naruto wanted a set of white dishes with a red spiral pattern that had been dusty and forgotten.

In the end, Sakura had had enough and almost broke both sets when she put them back and forced them into a set of pale yellow clay dishes with a single red line around the edges. Naruto handed those out to his students now and placed the hot pan with the sukiyaki on a towel in front of the three.

The pan was sizzling but that didn't deter them. Blondie grabbed a strip of meat and didn't bother to let it cool before stuffing it into her mouth. All four of them were ravenous, it had been a hard day, and before long all the food was gone. Naruto decided to be an even better host and started to seep Gaara's special store of green tea and, to the children's disgust, snipped some leaves off of the mint plants to soak in the water as well.

"Um, Sensei," Hanako's fingers picked at her faded yellow dress. "Are you really going to send me back to the Academy?"

Naruto was quiet for once and went to strain the leaves when he answered. "Why shouldn't I?"

"The test wasn't fair!" Blondie came to Hanako's defense before she could reply. "You gave her the heaviest!"

"So?" Naruto had to hunt for the set of guest tea bowls that Tsunade had given them as a house-warming present. They were sitting right next to the shot glasses she had also given them. Naruto rather liked them. They weren't a matching set and were hand crafted. One was reddish clay from a Stone country merchant. The edges were a little lopsided there was delicate red flower painted on two of the sides. Another was deep green with darker rings all around the bowl that showed where the potter's hands had trailed in attempt to make it smooth. The third was a blue so light it was almost white on the outside but the rim and inside was a deep ocean colour. This one had a painting on it too, a navy outline of a sea bird that wrapped around almost the entire cup. The last was Naruto's favourite, it was yellow and had been cracked twice. The cracks had been repaired with gold and the rim was also covered with the same gold.

He poured them the tea, passing the red one to the boy, the green one to Blondie and the blue to little Hanako.

Hanako sipped her tea politely and Musad stared into his but Blondie ignored hers in favour of more yelling. "If you send her back _I'm_ going to tell the _Hokage_! Araki-san told me you're only a _chuunin_, you _can't_ send us back because we had a _jounin_ pass us and _you_ can't disobey a higher ranking ninja no matter how much of a _bad man_ you are!"

"Musad," Naruto made the boy jump a little. "Did you have trouble finding all those plants?"

The boy hesitated. "A little."

"And Blondie," she scowled at the name and muttered 'Kaida', "Did you have any trouble getting the vegetables?"

"Maybe," she mumbled. "I mean, who the heck knows what a," she checked her crumpled list, "Komatsuna is? I had to go to _eight_ different stores and I couldn't exactly _ask_ the grocers for help! I mean I did have to _steal_ everything."

Naruto nodded with an air of seriousness. "So have you figured out my hidden meaning yet?"

All three looked at him with blank expressions. "Oh come on, it was genius! Guess, guess!"

Hanako and Blondie exchanged a look that clearly thought he was crazy. "Look," Blondie said slowly. "Me and Musad need to get back to Araki-san's. It's late and all."

Naruto frowned at them. "Oh come on, guess! Why did I make you guys get the things you did?"

"Sir, we're kind of tired," Hanako's voice was quiet but insistent.

"Oh fine, you guys are no fun," Naruto crossed his arms. "I'll just tell you. Look at Hanako's hands."

They all glanced down and she held them out for their inspection. "I don't see anything," Blondie declared.

"That's because you aren't looking close enough," Naruto leaned over the countertop and grabbed Hanako's wrists. She flinched and tried to pull away but Naruto flipped them over so they were palms up.

"All living things have chakra," Naruto felt like he should be in a classroom as Blondie leaned over so her nose was practically touching Hanako's hands and Musad was standing on his stool to get a better look. "All ninja, all animals, all plants and even all the villagers. No, seriously, don't laugh. Anyway, look at her hands. Lean back, Blondie no one else can see.

"Look here," he traced her lifeline, the thin line that ran around her thumb. "You can see the traces of chakra everywhere but this line is the easiest. It represents life, it reflects all that we touch and influence and are influenced by."

He laid Hanako's hand flat on the counter top between her cup and her plate. Her fingers curled so Naruto held them flat. "Now stare at that line. Forget the rest of the hand. Can you see it?"

All three squinted hard and the room was completely silent.

"No," Blondie sat back, breaking the tension. "I don't know _what_ you're talking about."

Musad sat back on his stool and looked accusingly at Naruto. "You are trying to make us look stupid."

"All right, fine," Naruto sighed. "I suppose you are tired. But remember, today I was being nice. Tomorrow don't expect handouts. Now, come on, get your shoes on, I'll walk you guys back."

"We aren't children," Musad started to say but was cut off by Blondie's, "Well it's _about_ time you behaved like an _adult_!"

Naruto went to drop off Musad and Kaida at their foster mother's house first. It wasn't too far, near the old Uchiha corridor. It was a skinny, three-story house crammed between a hotel and a used bookstore. The curtain on the second floor twitched as their guardian, a heavyset villager named Araki Midori, watched Naruto with narrowed eyes.

Hanako's house was much farther away, on the edge of the Hyuuga's isolated homes. The house was two stories and stood apart from the rest of the neighbourhood, the last on the road before it ran into forest. It was the only house without lights on and was surrounded by a rundown picket fence and gate that was missing several planks. It was hard to see in the dark but the modest plot of land was neat and blossoming with new vegetables.

"I'll see you tomorrow Hanako," Naruto waved as she opened the small picket gate and let herself into the yard. She nodded shyly and dashed into the house, sliding the door closed quickly behind her.

Even though it was dark and late, Naruto cut across the roofs of the town until he found Shikamaru and Ino's apartment complex. Ino looked less then pleased to see him at that late hour and let him in.

"Shikamaru is late," she was dressed in a housecoat and was obviously getting ready for bed as she poured him some tea. "There was a backlog at the office and the Hokage needs him to take care of it."

"I can wait," Naruto said and she scowled. Annoyed, she left him sitting alone in the small kitchen and went into her bedroom, banging things around as she cleaned.

Shikamaru showed up half an hour later. Naruto had had three cups of tea and Ino had rearranged the entire book collection.

"I found him," Naruto was bouncing in his chair; the caffeine from the tea had given him a boost of energy. Shikamaru on the other hand was slumped over the table, yawning, and not in the mood for games.

"Gaara? Good for you. Why are you here?"

"I found him but I didn't _find_ him," Naruto explained. "I mean I found his chakra signature and I want to go after it tomorrow."

"Okay."

Ino took the last chair, her grumpiness increasing.

"He's west of the village," Naruto drummed his fingers on the table. "When I was coming home in through the west gates, but I had been traveling west to get to Konoha. I should have come through the _east_ gates."

Shikamaru frowned, the lines under his eyes lifting as he thought. Naruto tapped, tapped, tapped on the table until Ino reached over and stilled his fingers. He ignored her and looked earnestly at Shikamaru, trying to convey his secret message. It was common knowledge that Gaara's Tanuki demon was sealed but the details of Naruto and his capture was classified.

For all Naruto lacked in secrecy and clarity, Shikamaru made up for.

"Kakashi and Sasuke's report said they found him near the west gates," Shikamaru said. "We didn't think much of it, he looked as if he was coming from the Sand country," Shikamaru looked at his hands the looked hard at Naruto. Naruto's enthusiasm waned a little. "You can't go alone. We still haven't found out who sealed his demon or what erased your memories. If they were strong enough to capture you and Gaara and then Gaara again you can't risk it by yourself."

"Who?" Ino looked from one to the other. "The one's who neutered Gaara? If you ask me we should be thanking them."

Shikamaru and Naruto glanced at each other then Naruto looked away.

"Give me a few days," Shikamaru said. "We need to inform the Hokage and start gathering a team."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto; studying him through his hooded eyes, trying to validate his gut feeling. He watched Naruto's eyes, his face, his bitten lip and finally the twitch in his fingers.

"Gaara isn't even a Fire country ninja," Shikamaru finally said, finding his answer. "For all we know he's a missing-nin and we've been harboring him for the past month."

"He's not a missing-nin," Naruto spat out. Ino stopped fiddling with her bracelet and started to watch Naruto's face like Shikamaru had been. Ino herself worked hard as a chuunin, teaching the youngest kunobi at the Academy while she trained for the jounin tests. She spent her mornings watching the faces of young girls and saw a range of personalities. There were girls like herself that worked in awe of the flowers, understanding the brief life of the ninja and the flower, determined to create something beautiful and pretending that it didn't wither as soon as it was plucked, pushing away that they, like flowers in perfect bloom, were plucked and used to create something temporarily beautiful. There were girls like Sakura who saw this and were fearful, who couldn't make something beautiful and despaired that their own end would result in the same. There were girls who didn't care, who wanted to fight and die all for noble causes but unmindful of the product they left behind. And there were the girls who refused to pluck flowers, who wanted to stare at them as they grew, bloomed and died, trampled underfoot as spring turned to summer, turned to autumn, turned to winter.

Naruto looked like all he wanted to do was to grab a handful of young sprouts and throw them in Shikamaru's face.

"Well he hasn't made an effort to contact his village since his release," Shikamaru pointed out.

"Neither did I when I was away."

"That's different," Shikamaru's voice didn't raise but it did get harder. "The Hokage trusted you. We know perfectly well Gaara is not well received in his home country."

"Why are you just deciding this now?" Naruto was getting angry and his voice was rising. "He's been here for a month! Hell, you let him look at classified ninja reports!"

"The Hokage trusted you," Shikamaru replied. "And she trusted your judgment," he prodded with his words, watching everything that Naruto did, everything he looked at, every breath he took. "But maybe she was wrong. Or maybe Gaara is playing us all for fools."

"He's not!" Naruto's face was red and he slammed his fists on the table. "He would never betray me like that!"

"We can't afford to take that risk right now," Shikamaru said. "Wait for the Hokage's orders. It's only been two days. If he is in trouble he is strong enough to last a few days more. If he's a spy then he has all ready reached Sand by now and the damage is done."

"Fuck you!" Naruto shoved the chair backwards so hard it fell over. Ino jumped, sitting forgotten at the top point of their triangle. Shikamaru stood to stop him as he stormed out of the door but he didn't follow as Naruto took too the roofs, heading in the direction of his own home.

Shikamaru gripped the railing of the balcony outside of the apartment, watching him jump from roof to roof and Ino slid out into the chilly night air. He didn't move when she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Shika," she said softly.

"I can't believe it," Shikamaru said softly but she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Can't believe what?" she asked.

He just shook his head and turned back into the apartment.

**_Don't forget to check out the reader's guide in my live journal under my memories. The next chapter should be out in a few weeks but I haven't started it yet. Thanks for all the feedback, to all the people who had added this story to their favourites and to their alerts!_**


	5. There’s more to him then that

_**It was ironic, getting some of the reviews while this part was all ready 1500 words in and I was all ready answering some questions (some not all! No worries!)**_

**_This is the longest goddamned chapter in the story. That's why it took so long. That and I suck at action scenes. _**

CHAPTER 5

He pretended that it was night and the stars were shining brightly over top of him. The moon would be almost at the highest point in the sky, a sure sign that everyone was asleep. He would be the only soul awake, left to watch the world slumber, protecting it or preparing to devastate it, he could never settle on one. He would sit on the roof, high above all of them. The wind would be cold and unimportant, the stars and moon would be bright and no one could find him beyond them.

Gaara's hand hurt and drew him back from the daydream. He shifted them to a better position behind his head, the bandages making a good cushion, as he ignored the pillows piled temptingly in the corner.

They had knocked him out with sleeping gas, the kind they had used to subdue Naruto. He had woken up in the room, sick to his stomach with his hands bandaged and recalling nothing about how much time had passed. Before, when he had just been paralyzed, they would come back to this room disoriented but at least Gaara could estimate how long it had been. It had been something normal that they could cling on to, first three hours, then three hundred and forty two hours, then four hundred and twelve, but at three thousand, six hundred and twenty nine Naruto had left him behind. Three thousand seven hundred and thirteen hours when he had finally escaped. But now that they had realized that he could slumber safely they had no hesitation to knock him out.

Naruto had been amazed that Gaara could keep track of time like that and he never explained it was because it had been a game when he was younger. He would count until the sun rose. First it was out of boredom and loneliness, he wanted people to wake up. Then it became less a countdown as a clock on a timed explosion scroll, counting how much time he had left to be away from the rest of the world.

He could remember thirty-eight hours in this room this time around. But he was certain that he had been there more.

Ever since he had been little the night had held such power for him. He could sneak out of his room and away from his handlers and sit wherever he wanted. When he was very young he liked to look into people's windows. It was hard to imagine living like them, without all the toys and things people had draped over him. He remembered very few and only vague images from those windows; it had been so long ago.

There had been a little girl, older then him but younger then Temari. She had pigtails like her but her hair was black and her skin was the exact shade of chocolate that the Kazekage's security advisor gave him every Monday. She was sitting on the floor playing with a doll made from two sticks and covered with a dress made from an old sack.

The girl had made the doll dance across the earth beaten floor, spinning dizzily in a circle until her tiny fingers lost their grip and the doll fell. The girl picked it up and started her little stick dancing again, the same pattern, until the doll fell once more. She did this over and over and Gaara watched, mesmerized by the little girl's patience. No matter how many time the simple doll fell the girl helped her to dance again.

When Gaara slipped back through his own window he sat in the dark and tried to make his own doll, a brightly painted blonde girl, a present from a visiting ambassador's wife, dance. But the shiny buckled shoes on the doll made her wobble and fall before she could spin as beautifully as the stick doll had. Gaara tried again and again before getting frustrated and threw the doll against the wall.

His caretaker at the time, his uncle had been away, rushed in to see what had happened but Gaara had all ready moved on to another toy, turning his back on the cracked face of the doll.

Gaara wished for that stick doll now, the one that could spin and spin and would still spin after it had fallen and look as graceful and beautiful as it did moments before.

He rolled onto his side, trying to ease the churning in his stomach. He remembered when he and Naruto had first come back from one of these sessions. Gaara had been terrified. The white masked men had placed them back in the room and left. It felt like his entire body had been severed from his brain and he was scared that it would never reconnect. But slowly he felt painful tingles in his nose, then his ears and it spread down his body at a terrifyingly slow pace until only his fingers and toes prickled.

He had turned onto his stomach and inched forward on his elbows to Naruto who had been placed on the blankets. His muscles jerked against his will and felt oddly weak but he finally managed to make it over when Naruto's eyes started to flicker.

The other boy had awoken screaming in pain, rolling into a tight ball as he heaved, his back and throat convulsing. Gaara had scrambled to his hands and knees to get out of the way. Naruto gasped for breath between spasms and Gaara watched wide-eyed and helpless, never having been in the position of the caretaker before.

It had gone on for hours with small breaks of air between the choking gasps and bloody vomit and Naruto's voice was raw from screaming. Gaara had managed to crawl onto the blankets with him, holding him on his lap as Naruto sweated and shivered. Gaara held his shoulders and stroking his hair hoping that he was helping.

Finally, Naruto had passed out but trembled in Gaara's hold even after Gaara had covered him with the blankets.

He had woken up again after what Gaara figured was a day but felt like an eternity.

It hadn't been that bad when Gaara had woken up this time. After a month of experimenting on ratios apparently they had managed to create the perfect mixture for knocking out a person without too many side affects. Still, a person wasn't meant to be gassed at all as Gaara's body was quick to remind him.

It was after that incident that the ice had been broken between the two of them. There was only so much breathing space in the room and both Gaara and Naruto were too aware of their personal space to be able to ignore another presence. At first it had been a bother for Gaara, Naruto was noisy, brass and knew way too many perverted jokes then was comfortable. But eventually they had both given in; they needed each other.

He remembered the first coherent conversation they had had. Before the first gassing they had pretty well avoided each other as best they could. They had only been there a few hours and Gaara was all ready through a book while Naruto was ripping pages out of another and making origami frogs.

But after Naruto recovered it was hard to ignore the fact that they were there for a while and they were going to have to live with each other.

"I still want to know why the hell we're here," Naruto grumbled, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room while Gaara leaned against one of the walls, his legs outstretched.

"I thought it would be obvious," Gaara replied, crossing his arms. "How many other demon carriers do you know?"

"Well," Naruto thought for a moment then sighed. "Yeah, yeah, jeez, forgive me for hoping that for once it wasn't the damn kyuubi people are after."

"You are hoping for someone with a personal vendetta against you?" Gaara snorted.

"I can be plenty unlikable without that damned demon!" Naruto protested. "Lots of people want to kill me and it has nothing to do with being cursed! Heck, most people who are strong enough to hurt me don't even know about it."

"I didn't think people hating you would be a good thing."

"Well it's good to be hated for being yourself then just for existing," Naruto said with a sardonic smile. And in a weird way Gaara understood.

They passed the time playing endless rounds of jun-ken-poi (Gaara was the almost flawless victor), sparring (which was challenging without the use of chakra) and meaningless conversations.

"I swear, her breasts were the size of my head!"

"Impossible."

"So possible! She had to wear this metal armour thing to hold them still or she couldn't use taijutsu without falling over!"

"I don't believe you."

"I'm telling you, when she ran they almost hit her chin on every step."

"That is a physical impossibility and you know it."

"Ch', you just can't believe something you don't see."

"I can so."

"Like what?"

"… lots of things."

"Yeah right, I bet you never even believed in Santa Claus!"

"Of course I did! When I was younger my uncle used to dress up every year and give me presents from all over the world."

"That's not believe in something you can't see," Naruto rolled his eyes. "I believed in him and I didn't get a single present my whole life."

That had sobered the mood for Gaara but Naruto just laughed. "Anyway, so there she was, standing over me, and I thought I was dead, I mean, I was piss drunk and there was this chick with the huge breasts and this huge sword standing over me…"

Gaara stared at the corner, not really seeing it. They had gone over every centimeter of this room; there wasn't a fleck of dust he didn't all ready know about. There didn't seem to be a reason for moving so he didn't. Being alone all that time before had been different. He had felt betrayed and had been fueled by a strong desire to hunt down Naruto. He had spent most of the time training or pacing. He had only stopped moving when he had been drenched in sweat and his muscles gave out on him.

But now he didn't have that reason. Naruto was out there, somewhere. He didn't even remember this place. Five months, gone. Gaara couldn't imagine what that would be like but what was harder was that Naruto could forget this, forget what had happened. He had followed Naruto around this last little while, trying to regain what he had lost but if anything Naruto was more confused by his presence and Gaara was too unsure to know how to proceed. It had been Naruto after all who had started their friendship and who had started to move it farther, not Gaara.

He was certain Naruto wouldn't think twice about his leaving. There was no one coming for him and no one waiting for him.

There was a dent in the wall from where Naruto's foot had hit while they were sparring once. It was too deep for whomever their capturers were to repair so it stayed there. It was like a carving on the wall, a testimony.

It was exactly seven angry steps or five normal ones from one end of the room to the other. After a few days they had started to go stir crazy. They had measured the room then faced each other.

"Ready panda eyes?" Naruto taunted.

Gaara smirked. He crouched low and replied dead panned, "Anytime whisker face."

Naruto jumped first, aiming a blow at Gaara's head. He ducked and used his wrist to deflect and forced Naruto to spin off to the wall. Naruto rebounded off the wall and came at him again.

Naruto's movements were fluid and smooth but they were slow and only a fraction of his strength. Gaara could follow them without trouble but he could barely move fast enough to move out of their way and he couldn't spot an opening to launch his own offense. It didn't take long for Gaara's knees to give out and he fell backwards, landing hard.

Naruto stopped in mid stance.

"Are you okay?" he said confused. Gaara panted but didn't stand up. He shifted to sit cross-legged and Naruto looked around uncomfortable before sitting too.

"I hate this," Gaara sounded frustrated for the first time.

For a moment Naruto thought he had said 'I hate _you_'. "Hate what?"

"This!" Gaara gestured around the room. "I can't stand it anymore! It's been five days and we've only seen them once. I can't take it!" His voice was getting louder with every word and he clutched his head.

Naruto leaned back. He remembered the psychotic rages Gaara went in during the chuunin exams and they nearly always started with a headache. He glanced wildly around knowing full well nothing would protect him.

But then Gaara released his head, looking puzzled at his hands, his anger forgotten in the face of a mystery. Not letting his guard down, Naruto backed against the wall and watched him wearily. "What?"

"I… I don't know," Gaara stared at his hands, puzzlement turning to horror. "I mean, we can't use chakra but," he stopped.

"But what?' Naruto was starting to realize that sometimes Gaara would just trail off as if he had forgotten the rest of the world was there.

"Shukaku," he touched his hands to his stomach and looked, as if he could see inside himself. "It's like he's not there."

Naruto let out a relieved sigh. "That's all? I never really feel the kyuubi either."

"No, not Shukaku," Gaara frowned and finally looked up. "I always felt him, heard him. I thought the chakra shield was just shutting up his voice."

Naruto shrugged and sat across from him. "I don't see why you are complaining. You never seemed too happy to have to be carrying him around all the time."

"Yeah," Gaara said softly. He took his hands off his chest and rested them on his knees. If they were ever going to escape they were going to need to fight their way out. He had relied on the demon for so long to protect him and to fight for him. He looked at Naruto who was watching him. Naruto did fine without using his fox helping him. He would have to learn how to work without Shukaku if he ever wanted to get out of here.

"You're right," Gaara said. "It's just strange. Give me a moment, then I'll be ready to start again."

Gaara flexed his bandaged hands. He never really had gotten that good. It made him think. If he didn't have his demon he was little more then a mediocre fighter. He gave a short laugh, little more then a hard breath. That was funny. Him, the most feared ninja of the Sand really wasn't that much stronger then a Konoha genin. If he never broke the seal then what would happen to him? Even when he sparred with Naruto in Konoha and he was able to use his own chakra he had barely hung on as Naruto beat him with ease.

It would serve him right, Gaara thought scornfully. To be powerless. He curled up tighter.

Food didn't come at regular intervals nor did it consist of anything remotely appetizing.

"That's it, they've decided to starve us," Naruto had been particularly melancholy one day. Gaara had counted twelve hours since their last meal and Naruto lay flat on his stomach by the flap as if him watching it would force food to come through.

"They haven't decided to starve us."

"We're done for. Goners. They've gotten what ever they wanted from us and now they are just going to leave us to rot."

"It would be easier to kill us through the gas," Gaara pointed out and Naruto shuddered.

"Don't say that," Naruto snapped and reached forward to bang on the metal with one fist "Hey! Starving demons in here! This is cruelty to animals!"

Naruto had fallen asleep when they finally pushed two bowls of cold rice meal in. Naruto hadn't woken up and didn't move when Gaara went to retrieve his bowl. They weren't given chopsticks so he had to shovel it into his mouth with his fingers. He had gotten over the indignity of it quickly; mostly because having Naruto as his meal companion didn't call for much in the way of manners.

He was still hungry after he had finished but he ignored it and went to wake up Naruto so he could eat his share.

Other times they had meals that were in the same hour. It frustrated Naruto to no end and he often ranted at the walls as if hoping for an answer.

Gaara turned from his side to his stomach and rested his head on his bandages. He stared at the metal food flap. So far there had been nothing. The last time he had eaten had been lunch with Shikamaru. He felt hollow but it was bearable so far.

…………………………………………………………………………..

Naruto left Shikamaru's determined to head out that night in Gaara direction but when he got to his apartment his common sense finally made an appearance and he calmed down. It would do Gaara no good for him to just go charging off into the night on little sleep and no resources.

So he washed the dishes, placed the plants on the windowsills, organized the books and soaked in the bath while he thought about what he was going to do the next day.

He had lain awake, still thinking, until the sun edged over the horizon. He drifted off as it started to shine through the leaves of the herb plants he had placed on the sill.

A few hours later he woke to a sharp knock on the door. Thinking it was Gaara back from meditating or visiting old friends or _something_ he struggled out of his blankets and skidded across the polished wood floor to the door.

Instead of his red headed companion three little, round, scowling faces stared at him.

"Yo," Blondie said. "You're _late. Again_," she glanced at his sleepwear and continued. "And you're not even _dressed_. I _thought_ you would have _learned_ from _yester_day. _We've_ been up since _six_."

Naruto was disappointed and wasn't afraid to show it. "Oh. Yeah. You guys. Well come in I guess. I'm not feeding you today."

The three were undeterred and Hanako shyly held up a straw basket. "I brought eggs for lunch today, Naruto-sensei."

It was hard to argue with that, so he stepped back and let them in while he got dressed. Musad had found the rice machine and was scooping it out into the yellow and red bowls. Naruto wrinkled his nose, it had probably been sitting there since before he left on the mission but the machine would have kept it warm and he didn't want to make any more. Hanako had a frying pan going with four of the eggs sizzling and Blondie was raiding Gaara's tea stash.

For the moment he was content with sitting on a stood and letting them take care of things as he thought of a way to get rid of them for the day.

When it was all ready Hanako slipped an egg on the rice and clipped fresh parsley off of one of the plants in the kitchen window to place as a garnish. They ate in silence for while.

"What do you guys want to do today?" Naruto finally asked, looking a them through his eyelashes in what he thought was a calculating gaze. To the kids it just looked creepy.

Blondie glanced and Hanako who shrugged. Musad didn't look up from his bowl.

"Well, I don't know," she replied for the three of them. He looked at her and she squirmed, inching away from him on her stool. "_You're_ the teacher."

"Right," Naruto smiled and leaned back, forgetting that he was on a stool not a chair and tumbled backwards.

"On second thought," Blondie sighed. "Maybe we _should_ pick something."

Naruto ruefully rubbed his head and got up. "Well, while you guys talk it out I'm going to run some errands."

"Now just a min-" Blondie started but Naruto was gone and she cursed and threw her chopsticks on her bowl. She looked at Hanako again, and then nudged Musad in the ribs until he looked up too. They nodded and were gone out the door almost as fast as Naruto had been.

At the west gate Sasuke straightened up from where he was leaning. Beside him, sitting in the shade, was Sakura. She had grown in the last few years. Her hair was still short, her forehead still large and her eyes as brilliant as they had been when she was twelve. But she was no little girl. Her boyish figure had blossomed into full curves that she complimented with comfortable clothes. She had the confidence she had lacked before and she grinned at Naruto's approach. Naruto slowed and looked at them with suspicion.

"Hey, Sasuke, Sakura," he said slowly and stopped. Sasuke and Naruto eyed each other.

"Naruto," Sasuke said coldly. "Where are you off to today?"

"Errands," Naruto replied, just as cold. His hands twitched. Sasuke's hands remained steady but they started to drift towards his leg pouch.

"Hm," Sasuke grunted and slowly fingered the side of a shuriken. Naruto licked his lips. A sudden wind blew a dead plant between them, tumbling it over and over in the dry dust.

Sakura stood up and looked from one to the other with an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, boys, we can just talk this out."

Sasuke relaxed a bit but Naruto didn't and launched at him with a yell. Sasuke tried to dodge to the left but Naruto spun in the air and caught the side of his head with the flat of his foot. Sasuke went skidding through the dust until he finally got his feet under him and stopped, crouched low to the ground. He had three shuriken in his hand and his now red eyes darted around, looking through the dust.

There!

He glanced up to see a shadow in the dustbowl above him and brought his arms up to cross in front of his face, prepared to fling the shuriken.

"_Mizu tsuna no juutsu_!" Sasuke threw the shuriken at the voice. He knew they hit from the grunt of pain but it didn't stop the hands from emerging from the dust in a fish seal then thumping hard once on his chest.

He was knocked back, out of the dust, in surprise. Thick blue cords erupted from where Naruto had hit him and before he could react they snapped around him, wrapped around first his shoulders then his knees, ankles, wrists and fingers.

Sasuke struggled, too late, as Naruto walked up to him and tossed the three shuriken on the ground. He had three shallow cuts, two to his forearms and one on his cheek.

"Nice throw," Naruto gloated as Sasuke squirmed in the ropes, glaring. "Tell Shikamaru I said hi."

"Naruto!" Sasuke tugged at the bonds. "Would you stop to think? You can't rescue him on your own!"

"Tell you what," Naruto crouched next to Sasuke and flicked him in the nose. Sasuke lashed out with his teeth but resulted only in an empty click as Naruto whipped his hand back in time. "Tonight, when I march back here with Gaara in tow, drinks are on you."

"It's not a game," Sasuke retorted. He was seething. Naruto, a chuunin, had just bested him, and he was all ready being considered for the ANBU. He would never hear the end of this from Kakashi.

Naruto just laughed and was gone in a flash. The dust had settled by now and Sakura watched as he jumped the wall, not bothering with the gate. She didn't follow him though but instead walked over to Sasuke, trying to hide a smile.

"Why aren't you chasing him?" Sasuke said through clenched teeth. He wiggled some more but the blue ropes didn't give.

"I know better then to get between Naruto and what he wants," she said. "Besides, I didn't think you wanted just any old person to come along and find you flopping here."

"What the hell was that juutsu anyway," Sasuke grumbled. He had finally managed to sit up but his hands were still twisted uncomfortably behind his back. "Tuna?"

"Water rope, I think," Sakura said dryly and formed a simple release seal with her hands. The bonds turned to water and dropped, soaking Sasuke.

He shot her a deadly look as she giggled. "Come on, we should report in to Shikamaru."

Naruto knew that the water bind wouldn't hold Sasuke for long so he moved quickly and didn't bother to hide his trail. After a few minutes he realized that no one was after him and slowed. Curious he stopped and listened but the forest was quiet. He shrugged and started moving but kept an eye over his shoulder.

He was so focused on listening behind that he forgot to listen ahead so he had no one but himself to blame when he stepped into the simple snare trap.

It jerked him up until he hung by one foot five feet from the ground, swaying from the force of it. He didn't even attempt to get loose, he just let himself swing with the rope until it finally stopped and waited for the trap setters to emerge.

"Hey," Kiba grinned. He had grown taller but little else had changed. He had shed the heavy fur trim jacket for his mission today and crossed his arms in triumph. Naruto scowled and crossed his arms too.

"Hi," Naruto was annoyed. "Shikamaru send you too?"

"Yeah," Kiba grinned. "Shino's here as well."

Naruto twisted to get a look around and saw him crouched at the base of the tree look up at where the rope was tied. Kiba may have grown taller but Shino had grown until he towered over all of his classmates and it was easy to tell that even if he was almost sitting on the ground. He hadn't traded his jacket for anything else today.

"Your dog isn't here," Naruto snapped. "What, I'm not worth the damned dog?"

"Hinata needed to borrow him for a class project," Kiba explained as if they were here for a friendly chat and Naruto wasn't dangling upside down from a tree. "I don't even try to ask what they are doing in those med-nin classes any more."

Naruto grunted and tried to think of a way out of this. He had to admit, Shikamaru was serious about this waiting-for-the-Hokage idea. "So are you guys just here to catch me or to join me?"

"To catch you," Kiba replied. "Shikamaru made it a B-rank mission but I have to say it was easier then I thought."

Naruto tried to grab him but Kiba ducked out of his way laughing.

"What's the deal anyway?" Kiba said once he had put some distance between them. "I mean, I know Gaara's been hanging out with you but it hardly seems worth it to risk your job and reputation for a roommate."

"There's-" Naruto had started to say 'There's more to him then that' but stopped before the words could form. He was glad he was upside down for the moment; Kiba and Shino wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a blush and his all ready red face. "I just want to know where he went," he finally said, figuring it was safe enough to say, to Kiba and to himself.

"Look," Kiba's tone lost some of the humour and took a more serious note. "I doubt that he's spying. I mean, I may not _like_ the guy but not even a spy would put up living with you for that long to get, what, the best ramen shop locations in Konoha?"

"Shuddap," Naruto snapped. The blood rush was making him dizzy.

"It's not like you've been on any top secret missions lately," Kiba shrugged. "Personally, I have no idea why he was here so long but good riddance. I think," at this Kiba leaned close enough to whisper but not within arms' reach, "I think he just needed to get away from that psycho family of his. I heard from a merchant that that girl with the fan has been looking for him nonstop."

"When the hell did you turn into such a gossip?" Naruto spat at him and squirmed. The rope was starting to dig into his ankle and he wished that Kiba would just get him down all ready.

Kiba looked insulted. Shino finally stood up, shaking his sleeves free of the forest ground dirt. A dozen or so bugs dropped to the ground and started to climb up the tree. Naruto looked over his shoulder and watched them as they scurried quickly up the trunk and onto the branch that his rope was tied too.

"Hey!" he shouted as they swarmed the rope. Naruto started kick with his foot making the branch shake. "Get them off you jerk!"

Shino just shrugged and the rope shuddered then broke and Naruto crashed face first into the ground. Not taking any chances Kiba grabbed one arm and Shino grabbed the other and they hauled him to his feet. Naruto jumped as bugs started to crawl all over him, under and over his clothes, in his hair and over his face.

"Get 'em off!" he panicked. "You bastards, get 'em off!"

"It's so that you can't use juutsu to escape," Shino finally spoke and he sounded cross. Naruto didn't give a damn whether he was cross or giggling like a schoolgirl, hundreds of little legs creeping all over his skin wasn't a pleasant sensation.

Naruto wiggled and struggled but they both had strong grips and neither was concerned about having the black crawlers on them so Naruto didn't have a chance. He cursed as they started to bodily drag him back the way he had came.

"Never mind what I said before," Kiba grunted as one of Naruto's flaying feet came dangerously close to his groin. "Definitely B-rank."

Naruto lunged for his ear and Kiba almost dropped him. "Can't we, like, tie him up or something?" Kiba risked letting go with one hand and grabbing Naruto's hair, shaking him like a puppy and then grabbing his arm again.

Shino was about to reply when something hard hit him on the head. Naruto wrenched sideways and Kiba was too shocked to hold him. Kiba flatted against a tree, three slender knives in his hands as he scanned the green tops. Naruto was gone and Shino was stunned on the ground. He looked left, right, above, on the ground but there was no sign of whoever had attacked them. The forest was silent and whatever had been there was gone now.

Naruto was too happy with his luck to worry about Shino. He had a pretty good idea what had happened. Unlike his friends he hadn't been distracted when the attack had come. He ran along the branches of the trees until he reached a river then dived into the deepest part.

It was cold and he almost let go of all his air with a yelp but managed to control himself. He clung to a smooth rock with chakra until the pounding current washed the last of the bugs away.

The three little faces were watching as he bobbed to the surface. Blondie waved mockingly and Naruto sighed. The current was strong but he was stronger and he waded back to shore only a few feet from them.

"We followed you," Blondie proclaimed with a self-satisfied look on her face. "We _knew_ you were going to try and get rid of us _again_ but we didn't think you'd be doing something _illegal_."

"It was cool," Musad offered solemnly.

"What did you _do_ anyways?" Blondie asked with eager eyes. Naruto groaned and rubbed his temples. His hair was plastered to his face and neck and was stuck with twigs. The cut on his face had reopened and was bleeding again and the river water made the cuts on his arms sting.

"Nothing," he said and crossed his arms, trying to look commanding. "Go back to the village and train or something before someone misses you. The last thing you want to do is be caught with me right now."

'No one's going to miss _us_," Blondie scoffed and Naruto felt a sympathetic twinge.

"We spoke together, Naruto-sensei," Hanako piped up shyly. "This morning, while we were waiting for you. Kaida-san thought that you might want to leave us behind again."

"Which you _did_!"

"We are supposed to be a team, Naruto-sensei," Hanako looked at him directly for the first time. "That is what being a genin is all about. Learning to work together. I know we…. We are not the ideal team," she faltered. "I mean, we're not special or anything

Naruto laughed for a moment. "You guys just took out Shino with a _rock_."

Hanako blushed but Musad just looked smug.

"You're right," Naruto sighed. For a moment he felt old, looking down at the three. He wondered if this is what Iruka went through everyday, or if this is what Kakashi felt whenever Naruto looked at him defiantly. He could remember so clearly being them, thinking he was invincible and if only he had a chance to prove himself. But now he looked and saw their small hands, their baby fat and suddenly he had a stab of responsibility. "Just not now."

He glanced at the forest behind them but there was no movement. Not that he expected any. "I really don't have time to train you guys right now," Naruto said. "I'll be back by nightfall. Hang out in my apartment until then. Throw a party or something."

"We are _not_ throwing a party, we are following _you_," Blondie planted her hands on her hips. "_You_ o_bvious_ly can't be left on your _own_ for _one minute_."

Naruto went to speak but found his voice frozen. He entire body suddenly wouldn't move. He couldn't even make his eyes turn to see what had him captured, though he all ready had a good idea.

"Fine," his mouth was working and that was his voice but it wasn't him saying it. "I give up. But be quiet and stay out of the way."

The kid eagerly walked across the pebbled bank of the river. "_Fin_ally, I _knew_ you would see it our-" Blondie suddenly stopped as three black trails emerged from Naruto's shadow and attached to their feet when they were close.

Naruto suddenly was able to move his eyes and his mouth.

"How the hell did you get me?" Naruto fumed, he could only use his eyes and not his neck to scan. The water at his back protected him from attacks on the other bank; the trees on this side were several meters back from the river's edge and the overcast sky kept shadows at a minimal. He couldn't see anything to show how Shikamaru had trapped him

"Naruto-sensei," Hanako sounded nervous. Blondie looked scared next to her and Musad looked furious. "W-what's going on?"

All three took one step to the left and the bodies were forced into a landing crouch as Shikamaru jumped down from his perch. He had been hiding on a branch in an oak tree that had braved the river's banks on the other side. Naruto hadn't noticed the faint shadow outlines of the overhanging branch on his side of the river.

They straightened slowly and Naruto knew Shikamaru was close enough behind him to feel his breath on the back of his neck.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. Naruto felt his cheeks heat up in anger and embarrassment at being truly captured. "I haven't done fieldwork in eighteen months. Too much paperwork."

"You've improved your technique," Naruto sneered. He felt his shoulder shrug alongside the kids as Shikamaru quietly acknowledged it.

"I see you're inspiring loyalty fast," Shikamaru commented and Blondie turned red.

"We aren't _loyal_," she spat. "This _loser_ tried to ditch us _again_!"

Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and Naruto's fingers jammed his hipbones clumsily; he didn't have pockets of his own.

Naruto could see Kiba and Shino approaching from the trees. Kiba was laughing and clapping Shino on the back; the other ninja was holding an ice pack to his head and carrying a good-sized rock in the other hand, frowning at the kids. Sasuke and Sakura dropped from the trees.

Sasuke was still soaked but Naruto was worse off from his dive in the river. As they came up behind the kids Shikamaru let the shadow bind go. Kiba grabbed Blondie's shirt before she could think of running. Shino laid a warning hand on Musad's head and Sakura patted Hanako's shoulder comfortingly.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. Sighing, Naruto put up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I'll go quietly."

Still, Shikamaru and Sasuke stayed almost glued to his side as they stared a march back through the forest to the hidden city.


	6. They let just anyone become a ninja huh?

**_Yeah, new chapter! Remember, there is a reading guide that explains any Japanese or reasonings I had while writing. Feel free to mosey over there while you are reading or after or whatever. People really seem to enjoy this story which is cool. I never expected anyone to like it and I'm glad it's getting such a steady audience. _**

_**Anywho, enough with me. **_

CHAPTER 6

The handcuffs were well made; smooth and so dense he had no hope of breaking them. The seal carved around the cuffs was elegant and looked like more decoration then a binding inscription. They didn't open, or rather the seal hid the opening from him. He did think that they were going a bit overboard in handcuffing first his hands together, then the handcuffs to the pole support in Tsunade's office, and then again to Iruka, sitting in a relaxed pose next to him with the latest _Shinobi Techniques_ open on his lap.

"Is this really necessary?" Naruto grumbled and rattled the chains. Iruka smiled good-natured at him.

"It's not that the Hokage doesn't trust you," he replied. "Shikamaru just doesn't want to have to outrun you again."

Naruto grunted and tried to cross his arms but ended up tangling himself even more. Iruka just flipped through his magazine.

He had been here for half an hour and it looked like he would be here for a while longer. Shikamaru had stomped around the office for a bit, gathering up forms and then locked himself, Sasuke, Sakura, Shino and Kiba in the office across the hall, determined to have them all fill out the forms together and correctly so he wouldn't have to deal with them later. Naruto almost felt sorry for them.

Iruka was on medical leave. His ankle was in a heavy white cast and a pair of wooden crutches was resting on the desk next to him. Naruto had stared at him when he had hobbled. Iruka had scowled and muttered, "Damn kids" under his breath but didn't elaborate. Naruto wasn't in any mood to carry a conversation so he ignored it and they sat in relative silence.

He had known it was futile when he had run away before. As soon as he had seen Sasuke doing guard duty of all things he knew that Shikamaru wasn't about to just let him leave. Idly he wondered if it was too late to ask for a mission that allowed him to leave the city for a good reason. A cat scavenger hunt or something.

He wasn't too sure exactly _why_ he had this desperate feeling. Sure, he and Gaara had gotten along. He had gotten used to waking up and having him curled up next to him, or reading down the hall, or struggling to make coffee. He had liked the quiet eye raises, the dead panned comments no one else heard, the steely looks when he overstepped.

Still, he liked things about other people too and if they just up and left he would be worried of course but he wouldn't have this primitive, animal need to search them out. He shifted, unable to keep still.

The next time he saw Shikamaru he was going to belt him across the head. It was unfair of him. Even if he did manage to get out of the chains and get out of the sealed window there would be no way he could fight Iruka, let alone an injured Iruka. The guilt alone would eat away at him so he was stuck, completely and utterly.

It was getting late and the breakfast the kids had made him at noon seemed a long time ago. Traveling for the past five years had made him get used to eating on the run and going a day or two without a proper meal but with a month of living back in civilization, with his own refrigerator, he had settled quickly back into a steady diet. And now he was hungry.

Iruka's stomach growled and Naruto couldn't help but grin over at him.

"Don't smile like that," Iruka warned. "My relief will be here soon with dinner."

Naruto knew he perked up at that and Iruka frowned at him so he tried to look meek. Iruka rolled his eyes.

"What is Gaara to you?" the words were eerily close to what Gaara had asked him three weeks ago.

Naruto looked at his hands and hoped that if he didn't answer Iruka would just sigh and go back to his magazine because he didn't like to lie to his old teacher but he also didn't know the answer himself. But Iruka worked with five year olds and had much more patience then Naruto.

"I don't," Naruto said haltingly. "I don't really know, exactly."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Is he a friend?" Naruto shrugged. "Does he owe you money?"

Naruto laughed at that one. "No, no. I mean, we've both been living off my money but it's not like he owes me or anything. I mean," Naruto trailed off. He sighed and slumped and Iruka sat up straighter. "Have you ever known someone and known they were, I don't know, _important_ or something but you don't really know why? Like your life is just, well not _empty_, but it's missing something you never knew you didn't have before?"

Suddenly Iruka felt a nagging little voice in the back of his head yelling '_Run, run you stupid bastard_!' and he cursed himself for being so approachable. Throwing yourself between a shower of shuriken and your student was one thing but it was something entirely different to face an emotional dilemma. The little voice, resigned to the fact that he was going to be ignored, pointed out that Iruka felt the same way every time he drew the short straw to teach sex ed.

"Why do you ask?" Iruka finally replied.

Naruto shot him a funny look. "Never mind."

They had an uncomfortable silence for a while.

"Well," Iruka finally squished the little voice with a final foot stomp. "How important is this person?"

"I don't know," Naruto shrugged. That phrase seemed to describe most of what he understood of his emotions right now. "Pretty important."

Iruka really wished that Naruto's father was here. It was conversations like this that was punishment for making women go through childbirth. But the man was long dead and Iruka had foolishly brought this position on himself and he was going to face it like a man.

"Important enough to go charging after him against Hokage's orders," Iruka said.

"The _Hokage_ hadn't said anything at that point," Naruto defended and cursed when the chains kept him from crossing his arms again. "It was just Shikamaru and what does he know?"

Iruka wisely refrained from comment. "Either way, you knew the consequences. So this person," Iruka stubbornly kept from saying the name, "is important enough for you to risk all of this."

"I guess," Naruto mumbled. "I just don't get it."

"Sometimes feelings aren't very logical," Iruka said. He was on more familiar ground, switching consciously into lecture mode. "There is no way to rationalize them. You have to accept it, embrace it and grow stronger with it. Ignoring it won't make it go away. You have several people who are important to you, right?"

"Well yeah," Naruto said. "You, Sasuke, Sakura, Tsunade-baba. And all my friends I guess."

For a moment Naruto felt like he was twelve again and he and Iruka were sitting in Ichiraku eating ramen. It was rather different when they were sitting in Tsunade's office chained together and he was now almost twenty but the atmosphere was the same.

"Why are all those people important?"

"I don't know," Naruto said again and made a face. "But it's a different kind of important I think. Maybe. I don't know!" Naruto tried to throw his hands in the air and got frustrated when the chains stopped him again.

Iruka was trying to decide how to reply when the door opened and his relief poked his head in.

Naruto was escorted, chained, through the streets to his apartment. While he had been at the head quarters the clouds had gone from overcast to stormy. The streets were even more full as people hurried to get their shopping and errands done before the rain fell. His guards, two chuunin who he vaguely recognized from somewhere, stood close enough that they could grab him if he ran off but far enough away that people could mistake them for casual observers.

The distance wasn't fooling any of the villagers. Most turned their backs when he walked by but a few shouted insults at his back. One brave old man threw a rotten tomato from his vegetable stand. It hit Naruto square on his back and a few people gave a ragged cheer but were silenced by the icy looks from the chuunin. Naruto just sighed and bowed his head, preferring not to watch the faces as he passed.

As they reached the seventh floor of his apartment one of his neighbours was just stepping out. Kimura Aya was seventeen and living on her own. Naruto and Gaara had run into her a few times, she was cheerful enough and worked as a teacher's aid at the nearby civilian primary school. She clutched her bag to her chest as Naruto walked by and stared, wide eyed, as the bandaged faced chuunin opened Naruto's door and let him in.

Her knuckles were white but she stopped the two as they were leaving.

"Is he in trouble?" she asked and the two glanced at each other.

"He's not dangerous," the taller one replied. His face was half covered by dark brown bangs but he had gentle eyes.

"Oh," she said quietly and glanced nervously at his door.

"One of the elite jounin has sealed his apartment for tonight," the one with the bandage over his nose tied to reassure her. "And someone will be here to escort him out tomorrow."

She nodded, still gripping her bag and too frightened to respond. The taller one shrugged and the shorter one sighed and they gave her one last reassuring smile before leaving. Aya rushed back into her apartment and packed a quick overnight bag before hurrying down the stairs, cursing herself for thinking the apartment was a great deal.

Naruto tried all the windows but found them sealed with ink all around the sills. The door was sealed too and when he tried to punch through them he ended up hurting only himself. Even the walls were harder then diamonds and Naruto felt himself panicking without knowing way.

He paced the main room thinking. Last night's calm, precise planning didn't seem to have worked so Naruto was ready to move onto his usual fallback Plan B: reckless, pig headed stubbornness.

Now that he had that sorted out, he stalked into his bedroom and pulled his travel sack from the sliding closet. He stuffed his clothes in, cramming them unfolded into every crevice. After a moments debate he grabbed some of Gaara's clothes too. They were neatly folded but he balled them up to fit in.

In the kitchen he grabbed some of the hardier foods to bring with him, some apples, a few pears and several instant ramen bowls. Not knowing what kind of state he would find Gaara in he grabbed one of the blankets Kiba had brought them and tied it to the straps.

His mind wandered briefly over what he was doing. Treason. Disobeying the Hokage. Aiding a possible enemy. Betraying his friends. _Rescuing Gaara_.

Prepared now to leave, Naruto went to the centre of the main room and laced his fingers together. He hadn't been able to break out himself but he did have one damned cursed card up his sleeve. It was time for the fox to pay up.

Five years of nomadic living had forced him to utilize every strength he had. The demon had gotten him out of some tight corners. He walked the familiar paths inside of him. It was dark and he shivered. No matter how many times he ventured this deep it always scared him that there was a part inside of his body that could house this dank maze.

He turned the final corner expecting to see the never ended bars and the dark, red, angry eyes trapped behind. But all that was there was a dead end. Naruto stopped, nearly breaking his meditation. He retraced his steps but no, this was the place. He rested his hand on the wall and it hummed. He frowned, there was something wrong with it, something that turned the hum into a sting and he found himself back in his apartment with a flash of white, panting and soaked through with sweat.

"What the hell," Naruto whispered and looked at his hands. They were shaking.

Before he could think there was a sharp rap at his window.

"Yo, loser!"

Blondie smiled cheekily at him. Pushing aside the fox for the moment, Naruto frowned and walked over to where the window was still sealed shut.

Either Blondie didn't notice or she didn't care. She gripped the bottom of the frame and heaved it up, almost tumbling off the perilous perch she had on the sill. To Naruto's surprise it slid open and he reached through quickly to grab her arm and keep her from falling.

He pulled her in and she had to use his arm to steady herself.

"What-" he started. "How did you get in here?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "The _window_. Jeez, they let just _anyone_ become a ninja huh?"

"No, I mean, the seals, how did you get passed them?" but it was obvious that she had no idea what he was talking about. Instead she uncoiled the rope that was around her torso and handed it to him. He took it and she tossed the other end out the window. Naruto braced himself just in time as heavy was suddenly added to the other end.

"You didn't _really_ think we'd let you get _away_ without at _least_ an explanation," Blondie planted her hands on her hips with a smirk.

"You guys shouldn't be here," Naruto said as Hanako's copper head appeared at the window and she crawled in.

Hanako turned and offered a hand to Musad who was right after her but he brushed her off. He was sneezing and Hanako handed him a cloth from her pocket.

"Well, we aren't good at doing things we should," Blondie sounded proud of herself.

"This is different," Naruto walked over to the window and stuck his hand out again. Confused, he looked at the ink seals painted on the wood. He had never been good at calligraphy; that had been more of a Sakura thing. He traced them in the air, trying to read it.

"Look," Blondie sounded annoyed that he wasn't more grateful. "We just got a _huge_ lecture from some weird looking _guy_ about obeying orders and all that _crap_ and we've decided," at this Hanako and Musad nodded in agreement, "that rules _suck_ and we want to know what _you_ were doing _any_way."

Naruto looked up from a kanji that might have been 'inside' but could also be 'mouth' with the tail end of the last character in his name.

Naruto felt like shaking them. "You can't just disobey orders," he said harshly. "Following rules is what ninja _do_. You all read the oath when you graduated, the Hokage is your way of life now!" he glared at them. "You could get jailed just for seeing me right now."

"_You_ could too!" Blondie yelled. "And we are going to follow _you_ because you are our _teacher_ whether you _like_ us or not!"

Naruto wanted to grab her and shake her.

"Orders are stupid," surprisingly it was Musad who spoke. The room fell quiet. "Sometimes stupid people give stupid orders. We cannot know who is stupid or smart. You ignore stupid orders," Musad accused. "And you are giving stupid orders now. We learn from you, we do what you teach and you teach us to ignore. We obey orders that are close to our hearts. Genin are teammates. We obey the heart of the team."

It was the longest speech the boy had every said and it seemed to take a lot out of him.

"And _anyway_," Blondie added. "You _owe_ us a proper lesson for once."

"But this is different," Naruto repeated but he knew they wouldn't change their minds now. Giving up on trying to understand the seal and deciding no to tempt the fates he shouldered his bag again and looked curiously at them. "Just who gave you that talk about obeying rules?"

"I don't _know_," Blondie huffed. "Some _loser_ like you who looked half asleep and covered his face the _whole_ _time_."

Suddenly Naruto smiled. He remembered a similar lecture, years and years ago when he was tied to a stump in a field. Blondie looked taken back by his change in mood and Hanako looked worriedly at him. Musad just smirked and cracked his knuckles.

"Okay!" Naruto yelled. "Off we go then!"

"You mean we can go?" Hanako looked at him in disbelief.

Naruto thoughtfully touched his nose and grinned. "The whole reason I got caught last time was because I didn't have anyone watching my back. As long as you guys promise to obey at least my orders we can get along. Shikamaru will kill me if one of you gets killed. You'd never believe the paperwork we would have to fill out."

…………………………………………………………………….

Gaara gave a calculating look at the wall. It was hard to concentrate. His brain was slowing down, he had started to recognize it after three weeks and he knew he should sleep. But he didn't want to sleep, not alone. He always knew how venerable people were when they slept and became even more attentive of that fact when his father started to hire assassins but he had never thought about it in terms of himself too much.

But, as his hands trembled and his knees felt hollow and ready to collapse, he was all too aware that those vulnerabilities applied to him now.

He had been pummeling the wall for a good three hours and had forgotten that physical work would drain his energy. He could still go long stretches without sleep and being knocked out from before had given his body some rest but he couldn't go on forever.

The plaster was cracking and he was afraid if he fell asleep they would repair it. They could repair it anyway, putting him to sleep themselves, but Gaara wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

The bandages on his hands were soaked through with blood and plaster stuck onto the gauze. Finally his knees gave out and he slumped to the ground, panting and sweating.

They had fed him and it was surprisingly good. Rice meal with the occasional fruit was the most they could have hoped for before but this time around he had gotten egg soup, rice and katsudon. He had been a bit suspicious but was too hungry to not eat it. It didn't mean he was going to start trusting these people though.

The entire room was starting to swirl around the edges of his vision but he pushed that back and attacked the wall again.

He punched, feeling the split skin on his knuckles open farther, deeper, and used the pain to fuel him

He kicked, seeing the faces of anger and fear on the faces of his village. He punched, using the suffering of his wounded heart at the sight of the children, terrified of him for retrieving their ball. He used the fear of seeing his first dead body, killed by the unswayable power inside of himself, the loneliness brought on by the shortsighted elders of the village, the fury of Shukaku at being forced into a pathetic child.

But that was all draining from him and his onslaught slowed as all those emotion transferred out of him, destroying the wall between him and freedom. He gave one last pathetic punch before dropping to his knees exhausted and rested his head on the splintered plaster.

It wasn't fair; he slammed his head on the wall, unable to lift his hands from where they shook in his lap. How could all the suffering in his life amount to only this, not even enough to break through a damn wall?

He thought of Naruto. He thought of the time before he had met him, lost in his own world, trying to make it perfect for him by destroying everyone else in it. He thought about after, when he realized what a lonely place he had created when he needn't have. And then he thought about their time together in this room.

All of a sudden he felt more anger then he had ever felt before. He slammed his fist on the wall, thinking about Naruto. He slammed the other, remembering the full out, _happy_ smiles. He slammed them both when he remembered the sideways looks Naruto gave him when he thought he wasn't looking. And again, remembering sly smirk when they sparred, and again, the image of the pleading eyes when there was only one apple left for the two of them, and again, the surprised look when Gaara had split it in half.

And, finally, he just punched the god dammed cursed beige wall.

He eventually collapsed and in his dreams he punched through the wall and found his way back to the small, tucked away home that he and Naruto had.

Not accustomed to dreaming he woke up disorientated and facing a fresh new beige wall that bared no sign of his earlier attack. His hands had fresh bandages, salve and stitches. Instead of getting frustrated, Gaara sat and stared, wondering idly what would happen if he tried to gnaw through his wrists. He stared at them for a moment then decided against it.

Just the fact that his hands were bandaged made him think. These people either couldn't use chakra, enjoyed drawing out their pain, or it was part of their twisted reasoning. He concluded that they must need to use chakra at sometime seeing as all three times he had been captured it was because of a preset seal.

Perhaps they hired someone. It wasn't unheard of for lower ranked ninja to sell their services on the side if they fell out of favour with their kage or needed extra money. It could be either a personal vendetta against him or Naruto or both, or it could have nothing to do with them.

Gaara fingered his tattoo; it was all so pointless.

Maybe it was the sleep or maybe it was because Gaara had finally worked all of the helpless aggression out of his system, but he felt more refreshed then ever and it was like he could see clearly for the first time.

Except for the fact the damned wall was in the way. He cocked his head at it for a moment and scrutinized. There was no point in beating it again, he decided. After all, it probably led to another condemned prisoner for all he knew and Gaara had already made one serious relationship with a partner in crime, he didn't feel the desire for another one.

So that was out. He laid back and felt an unusual emotion; laziness. It was nice, he decided and closed his eyes, nice to feel venerable. Nicer still to have someone to watch his back and with the cloud of depression worked out of his system he felt for a brief moment that someone did. He slept for the first time in this room without the aid of drugs or exhaustion.

_**Just as an aside, how many people read the Reader's Guide? It does help I think to connect the dots of the story. I'll write the chapter and when I go back and analyse it for the last time I see things I never saw before and it's those observations that I record in the Guide. It's under my memories in my lj, which is my homepage. **_


	7. Congratulations, you're officially genin

CHAPTER 7

Kakashi was waiting for them, just as Naruto knew he would be. The rain was starting to fall now but the kids were too happy with Naruto's consent to their participation that they didn't complain. They landed lightly behind Naruto on the rooftop when he stopped to greet his old teacher.

"_You_'re that weird pervert guy," Blondie accused.

"If you're here to stop me, you're late," Naruto half grinned. "We had that chase a few hours ago."

"Oh," Kakashi smiled. "Then I guess there is no point in starting it again."

He pulled out a leather-covered scroll from the bag on his shoulder. Naruto took it wearily.

"It's information Sasuke and I have been gathering about the place where you were held," Kakashi explained mildly. "I was on my way to deliver it to Shikamaru but I suppose it fell out." Naruto looked surprised, then Kakashi held out the entire bag. "I dropped this too."

"You seem to be having a bad day," Naruto managed to say.

"Worse then usual," he shrugged. "I also failed to complete a seal I placed on an apartment today."

If Kakashi could wink with one eye he would have. Naruto only managed a short nod as a thank you. Blondie looked from one face to the other then grumbled.

"Are you two _done_ or can we keep going before anyone _else_ catches us?" she snapped.

They made it out of the town safely. The West gate was surprisingly empty and Naruto had a nagging suspicion it wasn't totally an accident. They disappeared into the forest at a slow pace as the kids struggled to find footing on the slippery bark of the trees.

Thunder was rolling overhead when Naruto called a halt by the stream where Shikamaru had stopped them earlier. They took shelter under a tree and Naruto opened the bag, finding four radio headsets and two oiled, waterproof blankets. They all put on the headsets and left the blankets in the bag. Then Naruto carefully opened the scroll.

"There's an entrance south and north," he pointed. The map and information was coded using an alphabet Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and himself had created years ago. He remembered how long it took him to understand it and even now he found himself frowning at certain symbols. "Most of it is underground. It looks like three guards at each entrance. They don't wear hitae but that doesn't mean they don't use chakra. Minimal traffic over the past few weeks," Naruto paused. "That might be the supply merchants. They must live there themselves."

"Who?" Hanako asked. Naruto looked at her and realised she was being serious.

They listened wide-eyed as he gave them a quick version.

"But, why would they kidnap _you_?" Blondie questioned when he was done. He ignored her.

"Our mission is a rescue," he explained. "Normally you guys would be starting out with D-Rank missions, rescuing lost pets or pulling weeds," all three made a face. "Hey, hate them or not, those missions pay enough for food in your bellies and the clothes on your back. This mission would probably be A-Rank," he paused and looked at them all with a serious face. "Normally a team or two of chuunin plus a few jounin would be on a mission like this. We are about to infiltrate an unknown enemy base that has enough power to kidnap and hold two strong, experienced shinobi for nearly half a year. We don't know how much manpower they have, what kinds of juutsu or weapons we will be up against or even where our target is being held." It felt odd, being in charge.

"You're starting to sound like we don't have a _chance_," Blondie accused.

"The odds of us actually doing this are slim," Naruto shot back. He tried to channel Iruka's optimistic charm but thought he was coming off more like Kakashi's deadpanned pessimism. "And there's good chance of fatalities." Blondie swallowed hard. "You guys wouldn't have to face this kind of mission or decision until you became chuunin," he stressed. "You need to decide now whether or not you want to go through with this. If you're in you can't change your mind. If you're out you should head back to the village and forget everything that's happened so far tonight."

"I will go," Musad proclaimed almost because Naruto could finish. "I am not running away."

Hanako nodded too. She looked pale and her hands shook a little but her jaw was squared. "I trust you, Naruto-sensei."

It was Blondie who took the longest. Finally she looked up, scared but angry too. "It's not that I'm a _baby_ or anything," she started. "But this is _dangerous_. People _always_ tell me that kids need to be _protected_ and it's _crazy_ for the Academy to train us." Then she smiled and said, "But I am a _ninja_ and I'm a _kid_ and I'm going to prove them _wrong_."

"You three need to listen to me," Naruto was relieved they had all agreed. "No questioning once we start, no hesitation, _nothing_. This isn't a game and it's not a drill. You have to trust that I know you guys well enough to put you where I put you," he grinned when Blondie glared at him.

"How the _heck_ would you know _that_," she grumbled. "You haven't spent more then _half an hour_ with us!"

The rain was coming down in sheets now and Naruto rolled the scroll up and tucked it into the leather case to protect it. "Hold out your hands, palm up."

They did. "This is what I was trying to teach you before," he said. "Your hands touch everything in your lives. I was staying with a healer woman in a village in the Country of Grass for one spring. She could tell a person's life story by look at their hands."

"Impossible," Blondie scoffed and Naruto felt a weird shift of déjà vu that reminded him of Gaara.

"Just look," Naruto was rapidly losing patience but now with the added responsibility of these three he wanted to go in ready. If they didn't trust him they would get themselves killed. "Here's a hint. Look at Hanako's. What colour do you see?"

Her hands were small and pale, splattered with dirt and drops of blood where the bark at tore at her hands when they had been running through the trees. Naruto wished they weren't with him.

"Brown," Blondie said and Naruto swatted her.

"I don't mean what's on her hands. Pretend you are focusing chakra but not your chakra."

"Blue," Hanako said suddenly. "Blue like that river."

"White," Musad echoed. "Like sand."

"And what feeling is that?" Naruto asked. Hanako looked at her palm thoughtfully, her now wet hair hanging over her eyes.

"Clean?" Blondie finally said. "And, sad," she glanced up at Hanako but the other girl's face was expressionless.

"Now Musad's," they looked at the pale palms that stood out against his dark skin.

"Red," Blondie spoke first this time. "Like clay or something."

"Yeah, red," Hanako agreed. "But like fire."

"Passion," Naruto said, needing them to understand. "Strength." Musad squinted but didn't say anything. The rain was pounding through the tree and on their backs but they didn't seem to notice. "And now Blondie."

"Kaida," she corrected but she wasn't angry as she concentrated on her own hands. "Green I think. But really dark green."

"Dark green," Musad nodded. "And it feels deep."

"You're yellow," Hanako looked at Naruto but not at his hands. "Like sunshine and gold."

"Never mind me," Naruto scolded. "Do you understand yet? Why I gave you the list I did that first day?"

"Maybe," Blondie leaned onto the back of her heels and suddenly realised she was soaked. "Awe _man_!"

Hanako stood and started to wring out her yellow dress, now stained with mud and dirt. She sighed but said, "I don't get to read that often. My aunt and uncle need me to work in the garden and at Yamanaka's flower shop. So making me get those books would be difficult and vegetables and plants would have been easy. But how did you know that?"

Naruto stood too and Musad and Blondie follow him. "Your plants left their signature on your hands."

"You're a _bastard_," Blondie grumbled. She was shivering as her thin shirt was clinging to her. "I could have found all those wild plants no problem but you gave me stinking _vegetables_."

"I thought you might hate being around people," Naruto smirked. Before Musad could speak Naruto continued. "You are from the Sand," he said and Musad nodded. "Plants are scarce and very different in the desert. I figured you would have trouble finding them in the forest."

He turned on his radio and the three fumbled to do the same. "If you have worked together you would have been able to make it back to the apartment at the same time," he gave them a look and they glanced at their feet in shame. "But then you guys stood up for each other and you started to band against me and that's where teamwork comes into play. Plus that little show in my apartment," Naruto grinned and they all had the grace to blush. "So congratulations, you are officially genin."

"You're just passing us _now_?" Blondie exclaimed and they all winced when it crackled over the radio. Musad glared at her.

"Yup," Naruto stuck the leather case back into his bag. "You three remember the map?" They nodded nervously. "Good. Musad, Hanako, you two cover each other. Blondie, you're with me."

She grumbled but held her tongue when he shot her a look. "Rodger."

"From the reports it looks like there is more activity towards the north entrance," Naruto continued. "If we hurry we will make it there while it's still raining."

"Why would we want _that_?" Blondie said sourly, looking like a wet cat and having much the same expression.

"No one is going to be expecting an attack in this weather,' Naruto pushed his bangs out of his face so he could see properly. "It will help mask our entrance. Getting in is the first step."

Naruto led the way, hoping the directions on the map Kakashi had given him was right.

……………………………………………………………………

"What do you mean you lost it?" Shikamaru felt like sometime inside his brain was going to snap. Kakashi shrugged.

"I think my bag strap broke."

"Did he take his team with him?"

Kakashi nodded. Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "Get Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Chouji, Sasuke, Sakura and…" he paused. "Ino. I'll get Ino. We need to brief them. Bring them back here in fifteen minutes."

"That many?" Kakashi looked surprised. Shikamaru glared at him.

"I'm trying to make this look like a real mission," Shikamaru growled. "If Naruto would just have some patience. Tsunade is talking with the elders about this. A team from Sand is arriving tonight to meet up with us," he sighed again. "I sent a messenger pigeon to the Kazekage last night and they had one nearby. Now go and get the others."

Kakashi nodded and was gone. Shikamaru stood up, pushing the Hokage's chair out from the desk and cursing Naruto bitterly. Before he had come back no one had questioned his decisions before, not even Tsunade. It had made his life so simple but having Naruto around made him think harder then ever, calculating first Naruto's last minute actions which seemed to have no rationality behind them and then the unexpected loyal acts people seemed to be inspired to do because of him.

He was glad he had acted quickly yesterday in sending the pigeon to the Sand country. Now at least they knew Gaara was not a missing-nin but a missing person, abducted over six months ago. They had Sand involved in the mission, securing both Naruto and Gaara's amnesty. Still, if only Naruto hadn't gone charging off.

He left to get Ino from where she was practicing in the northern fields with her other jounin prospective friends. With the test in a few days she had turned her Academy classes over to another chuunin while she trained with her team, rain or shine.

She was confused as to why he was dragging her away from something so important but saw the expression on his face and didn't argue. The rest of the Konoha ninja were in the Hokage's office when they arrived back, mud splattered and soaked. Shikamaru couldn't help but scowl at them as they lounged around the room, most of them impeccably clean and dry.

Kiba was sizing up Sasuke, who was subtly hiding behind Sakura, who was chatting easily with Hinata, who was discreetly trying to ignore Chouji's crunching in the corner, who was trying to read over Kakashi's shoulder, who was inching closer and closer to the stoic Shino.

They all looked up when Shikamaru and Ino entered from the window.

"Is this about-" Sakura started but Shikamaru cut her off.

"Naruto has escaped his apartment," he said flatly but none of them seemed too surprised. Sakura looked vaguely guilt but Sasuke and Kakashi didn't flinch. "He has also taken a genin team outside of the city walls in an attempt to fulfill a possible A-Rank mission."

"Are you sure he took them?" Kiba said ruefully. "Because even Naruto isn't that stupid."

"Our primary mission is under the highest confidence," Shikamaru continued. "You were all chosen for your loyalty to Konoha and to the Hokage. This mission is not to be spoken of outside of these walls, not to me, not to the Hokage and not to yourselves."

Chouji shot a look to Ino but she just gave a small shrug.

"Our primary mission is to protect the reputation of Uzumaki Naruto. As far as anyone knows he is in this room with us right now, planning this mission. The Hokage is currently protecting the three genin, Ishimoto Hanako, Daida Kaida and Musad bin Suoud."

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura didn't look surprised but the others glanced at each other. Shikamaru waited tensely, hoping that he had judged them all correctly. Naruto's unwelcome influence had thrown everything he thought he knew about people into a wild loop.

Finally, it seemed like they had all come to an agreement. "We're in," Kiba said grimly but with a smile on his face. Ino nodded for her and Chouji and gave him an affectionate grin. Shikamaru gave a mental sigh of relief but turned to Kakashi and said out loud, "Give us a brief on our target and his location. We need to know what he's doing if we're going to protect him from himself."

……………………………………………………………………………………

The sun had been hiding behind the clouds all day and, just as Naruto and the kids approached a small door way shaped with the wings of a temple entrance, the sun had started to sink behind the protection of the horizon, making the all ready dark skies blacken.

Two guards were huddled just under the shelter, smoking and hunched over. It made Naruto nervous that there were only two of them; Kakashi report had said three. It was good Naruto and the kids were wearing the radios. It had been hard to talk over the pounding of the rain when they had all been scrambling for footing. More then once Naruto was sure he had lost one of the kids but they always managed to bounce back with a quiet apology (Hanako), curse (Blondie), or grunt (Musad).

Now they were crouched at the bottom of a tree again, several hundred meters from the entrance. Wanting to keep an eye on the guards but also wanting to see the south exit, Naruto was torn between leaving the kids where they were and hoping nothing would happen, or trusting them to keep out of sight while they scouted.

"Musad-kun and I were always paired up for tracking class," Hanako reassured him. "And we always won the competitions."

"Fine, but be careful," he said sternly. "And don't get out of range of the radio."

Blondie looked after them longingly but resigned and followed Naruto up the trees so they could talk freely and keep a better eye on the guards. She leaned back against the trunk, clearly happy to be out of the brunt of the rain. Naruto wanted to scold her for relaxing when they were supposed to be watching the entrance but she started to scan the treetops and he let it slide.

"_There is a big stream west of here,"_ Hanako's voice crackled over the radio and Blondie almost fell out of the tree. "_We need to find a way past it, it may take a while. Over._"

"Okay," Naruto replied. "Don't try to swim it, not in this weather."

There was a pause, and then Musad replied in a borderline sarcastic tone, _"Rodger_."

"Keep alert," Naruto said over his shoulder to Blondie and he could almost feel her bristling on her tree.

"I'm _always_ alert," she finally shot back. "It's _Musad_ you gotta worry about."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked, partly to pass the time and partly because he was starting to realise just how venerable the kids were now that two of them were out of his sight.

"He's a _such_ daydreamer," she perked up. Mostly protected from the rain and finally able to speak to someone other then her teammates she was ready to gossip. "_I've_ been living at Araki's house for _years_ but he only started there _seven months_ ago."

"Why's that?"

"I don't _really_ know," she shrugged. "He's _not_ much of a talker. But he knew _a lot _aboutninja stuff and he was pretty strong so he started at the Academy with me and the other kids went to the _normal_ school. I go there because my _whole_ family used to be ninja."

Naruto looked at her for a moment. "Really? Where you a clan?" It was hard to imagine that someone with ninja parents would be left to a foster home. All of the ninja parents he had ever met had airtight wills when it regarded the care of their children.

"Well, no," she admitted. "I mean, everyone's _pretty_ sure I'm from a ninja family, because it would be _weird_ for me to be a ninja if no one else was. I mean, Hanako's mother was a _jounin_ and Musad said his uncle's family worked for the Sand's shinobi."

Naruto glanced from where he was watching one of the guards scratch his nose and gave her a puzzled look. She held up her hands in mock surrender.

"Search _me_ why he's living in Konoha! Araki told me his _parents_ used to be merchants or _some_thing and there was a raid or something. One of the people who found them brought him here. I think they just _stuck_ him in the Home before Araki's."

"The Home?"

"Yeah," Blondie looked at him indignantly. "You know, the Home of Orphaned Children?"

Naruto shrugged. Back when he had been younger all he could remember was random flashes of masked ninja or clearly unpleased civilians feeding him, pushing him out the door, or locking him in rooms out of their way. When he had started at the Academy he had lived on his own with one of his teachers checking on him or dropping food off every so often.

"It's not that bad," Blondie shrugged. Naruto looked back to the guards; they hadn't done anything interesting.

"I mean, the people who run it are nice enough and we had enough to eat," she continued. Naruto had the feeling she was not so much gossiping now but just talking to cover up the rain and her nervousness. It was odd, he supposed, to reveal to cover up. "I lived there for a long time, then they shipped me off to the Academy early. It was fine, then I guess I was practicing too much on the other kids and Araki took me. I think they just figured Musad would live there too because he went to the Academy or something."

She wasn't speaking too loudly and there was still nothing exciting happening so he didn't stop her when she kept on babbling.

"Hanako, now _that_ girl should be living with us. I mean, when her mom died she was _supposed_ to just live with her dad then _he_ took a dive off the Hokage cliff and she got shuttled off to her aunt and uncle's. I think it was," Blondie wrinkled her nose and thought. "Um, _four_ years ago? Yeah. Anyway, they didn't really _want_ her or anything. Her aunt is the meanest woman I've _ever_ met. And her uncle just drinks and drinks. Araki likes her sake every so often but _nothing_ on Hanako's uncle. So she spends a lot of time at _our_ house because no one really knew what to _say_ when her dad died and me and Musad were the _only_ ones without parents. Not that Musad _talks_ a lot or anything but if you hang out with him enough you can just _tell_."

Naruto nodded to show he was listening and he was.

"I _think_ I have him figured out, actually," she brightened up a bit. "I mean, I've been able to piece together _some_ things. He's actually kind of nice. Sometimes. But all boys are I guess."

She fell silent and before she could speak again the radio crackled.

"_We've reached the South entrance_," Hanako's voice sounded oddly prideful. "_There's one guard._"

"Just the one?"

"_He is very fat_," Musad added.

"Any movement?" Naruto asked and there was a pause.

"_A rabbit_," Musad was sarcastic.

"_I've set up three detection spells, Naruto-sensei_," Hanako said in an apologetic tone. "_If a human sets them off we'll know._"

Naruto was a little shocked at her certainty that her detection spells would work They were often temperamental and unreliable, but it was the best that could be done and he ordered them to get back. When Hanako showed him the three bells on her belt that were attached to the spells around the South entrance and he was fairly impressed.

It was ridiculously easy to take out the two guards in front and they crept inside, Naruto first, followed by Blondie, Musad and Hanako going last. It was light inside and it made Naruto jumpy. He couldn't tell where the light was coming from, it felt like the walls themselves were the source and for some reason that made his skin crawl.

The corridors were narrow and full of sharp four way corners that bothered Naruto more then it should have. Blondie was so close behind him she kept on running into him when he stopped at the corners but he didn't scold her. As brass as he had been at her age, this kind of atmosphere would have had him terrified.

They came across a door. The sign protruding from above it said "Animal Gland Storage". They moved past it, ducking so they wouldn't be seen through the frosted glass.

Naruto's nerves were all ready strung out and they stretched even more at the seemingly empty building. He knew Gaara was here, he could feel it, but every time he thought he was getting close a corner would come and force him farther and farther away. Finally he couldn't take it and stopped.

Blondie bumped into him again when he turned and Musad and Hanako bumped into her. He crouched to their level and the second he did he saw the small black marks on the walls.

"What-" his voice was so quiet there was almost a breath but it was the only air that stirred in the flat stone corridors and the kids heard it.

Musad held up a small charcoal stick. He had been marking their whole progress. Naruto nodded in approval.

Suddenly, Blondie reached up and grabbed his shoulder pulling him forward, the second she moved he had heard the kunai being thrown at him. It hit the ground, sending sparks flying as it skidded along the stone.

Within the blink of an eye, Naruto had shoved the kids against the wall and turned to face the thrower.

A one armed man faced them, a mask pulled up over his nose and head, leaving his eyes free. His right hand, the only on he had held three more kunai ready to be launched at Naruto's first movement. But what Naruto noticed the most was the Konoha hitae tied around his neck.

The strange ninja had barely enough time to gasp before Naruto took him out, leaving him crumpled on the ground. The three kids had braced themselves along wall, ready to jump in and help but they were all pale and a little relieved.

They ran into three more Konoha ninja, all disabled in one way or the other but no civilians like Naruto thought. In fact, it was like the entire place empty with just this skeletal security staff. He had lost track of how long they had been wandering and a few times found themselves turning corners to be met with the little black marks.

The strain of sneaking and fighting was beginning to tell on the kids. They had been forced to fight; Naruto couldn't maneuver well in the tight hall and often the attack had placed the kids between himself and Naruto. Hanako had taken a kunai to her head in one of the fights and Naruto's heart nearly stopped.

In a rage he had taken the guards out with more blood then he needed to and was kneeling by Hanako almost before the guards body had hit the ground.

She had groaned when he checked her over and he slumped with relief when all he found was a shallow cut.

Finally, they found a door with a useful title on it: "Main Surveillance".

It was surprisingly dark with the dim glow of a dozen television set along one wall lighting the room. It was empty. Floor to ceiling wooden cabinets held boxes upon boxes that spilled over with papers. The room had a general untidiness, like someone had lived too many hours in there. A wooden table took up most of the floor space and it was badly chipped. A single chair looked like it would barely hold a child faced the computer screens. Several empty ramen bowls and dirty cups littered the table, sitting on top of stained papers with hastily scribbled notes. It looked like who ever was usually in here had left in a hurry.

Naruto ignored the television screens and instead stead started to scan the papers. He knocked several ramen bowls to the ground to read something and uncovered a large ring of keys.

"Hey, there's a person in that room," Blondie said suddenly, almost scaring Naruto with her voice. He glanced to where she was pointing and froze. There was Gaara, sleeping peacefully on his back. The picture was fuzzy, unclear but there was no mistaking that red hair, or that tattoo blatant on his pale forehead.

"Is that him?" Hanako had seen him react.

"Where is he?" it was all Naruto could do to keep from jumping over the table and trying to touch him through the screen. He turned back to the papers, not wanting to see Gaara so venerable and alone. In his haste, he knocked over even more dishes, throwing papers to the ground.

"Room 7," Musad grumbled. He pointed to a faded piece of tape labeling the screen. "We passed Room 6 not long time ago."

And Naruto was gone, forgetting the kids as he ran, the keys echoing down the stone corridor the only sign he had ever been there. Blondie was about to start after him when Hanako grabbed her hand. "Look at that box."

Behind them on the shelf was a leather bound box with the words "U Z U M A K I NARUTO written in bold black letters. Right beside it sat G A A R A. Wordlessly, Blondie pulled them off the shelf and they opened them, none of the three noticing when the lights suddenly went out in the halls and plunged the entire underground into near darkness. They started to read by the glow of the screens.

………………………………………………………………………….

Gaara had just started to stir awake when he heard a noise he had never heard before while being in this room: a sound outside the walls. Groggy, he scrambled to his feet as a part of the wall moved. He stared at it; he and Naruto had never been able to find any cracks or lines indicating a door though they knew there must be one.

It moved out before slowly starting to open. Gaara braced himself, narrowing his eyes with a strange, nervous pit feeling in his stomach he had never really felt before. Fear, he thought to himself as the door slowly, slowly, opened. The room was light and there were no shadows but whatever was outside of it was dark. Gaara squinted, unable to see what was behind the door.

Suddenly he saw a darker shape amoung the dark backdrop and he rushed it, hoping to get an advantage.

"Gaa-" he hit the body, throwing both of them out of the door, finally out of the door, and into the shadows. Gaara felt the body grunt as they hit the ground, cold stone, colder then Gaara had felt in days and he relished in it as he pinned the person with a knee to the chest and two hands around the throat.

"Gaara!" the body gasped out, strangled, and Gaara let go in shock, finally, finally, hearing it and hoping it was for real.

He stumbled back, away from the body, the only warm thing in the cold stone outside and fell against the door, pushing it closed and sealed without him behind it.

The body, the voice, Naruto, coughed and Gaara's eyes still couldn't make him out clearly but the yellow hair, like sunshine and gold, stood out against the dark and he couldn't, shouldn't, believe it.

"Some welcome," Naruto rubbed at his collar. Those blue eyes, as bright as chakra, smiled at him and finally, finally, Gaara believed.

"Naruto," it was hardly more then a breath but Naruto heard it and he smiled the smile Gaara knew Naruto thought he didn't see whenever Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eye.

Then suddenly the cold stone on his back, colder then he had felt in days, seemed gone and the warmth over him was warmer then anything he had felt ever. Naruto's breath was over his and they were so close he didn't see anything but the blue and he reached up to touch, to grab the solid shoulders, to make sure it was real. Scarred, rough, pale hands braced on either side of his head, blocking out the rest of the world as everything turned to focus on Gaara and Naruto's breath, their mouths, their lips and the soft touch as they finally, finally, connected.

One of those scarred, rough, pale hands slide from the wall to his hair as Naruto leaned forward, taking control for a few brief, eternal moments before he leaned back again, leaving Gaara in the wake of the kiss.

"Is this what I think of you?" Naruto asked, breathless and smiling in a way Gaara felt rather then saw.

All the thoughts of his cunning plan to win Naruto over were thrown out the window as Gaara stared at him, struck dumb now that Naruto seemed to have sucked him dry. Naruto released his gentle grip on Gaara's hair and slowly ran his finger through it, all the way back to the stone wall.

"Not," Gaara managed to squeeze out. "Uh, we weren't quite there yet."

"Oh," Naruto said, an edge of something on his voice and he started to lean away, taking his hand and taking his warmth with him.

"Not," Gaara struggled with his brain, cursing the fact he seemed to have forgotten whatever language they were speaking in. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Oh," Naruto grinned.

Suddenly Naruto glanced up and moved away from Gaara much too fast for his liking. He shivered against the cold stone, and then stood with Naruto as he heard the footsteps approaching them too.

"Yo!"

Gaara stared as three children jogged up to them, the lead one holding a small flashlight. They looked ragged and tired, and scarily young to be standing in the dank, dark corridor.

"Oh, you found him," the lead girl panted as they stopped. She was blonde and looked like a wet dog. She had a liberal spatter of freckles all over her face and glared at Naruto with bright blue eyes. "We _were_ right behind you, ya know."

Naruto shot them a sheepish look.

"We found papers, Naruto-sensei," the shorter girl and another boy both held boxes in their arms. She looked the worst off of the three with a hastily cleaned head wound and splatters of mud on her face, making it paler then it was, and clumped in her copper red hair. The last kid, a short dark boy, kept on glancing over his shoulder and didn't say anything.

"Good," Naruto said and started to go the opposite direction the kids had come in. "Let's get out of here-"

But too late Gaara saw the familiar red seal flash on the floor and he felt the nauseating pull on his midsection.

**_Go read the Reader's Guide for more info. It's on my lj, under my memories. _**


	8. Why the hell do they have teapots?

**_Two week delay… sorry folks. I started working and it's been eating into my time. But I predict one, maybe two more chapters plus the epilogue, which I've all ready started. So the end is in sight and it seems to be wrapping up nicely. _**

CHAPTER 8

Night had started to fall and the rain was pounding in earnest on the windows as Shikamaru and his chosen team finally ironed out a plan. Sasuke had briefed the room with a few dry comments from Kakashi until their weeks of on and off surveillance began to paint a picture.

They had counted at least fifteen different guards, none of them wearing village identification. Most had been overweight and bored. Sasuke made a sour face when he told them that. From what Kakashi and he could tell they were more like gatekeepers then guards. Usually there were three at each entrance on rotating shifts and allowed wagons pulled by oxen to unload supplies and turned passing visitors away. But sometimes, as Kakashi had pointed out, "they disappeared when the hookers arrived."

With his sharingan Sasuke had managed to catch a name one of the guards had scribbled on a sheet when they had been accepting an order: The Fire Country Experimental Chakra and Juutsu Research Facility.

When he heard the name a little flag went up at the back of Shikamaru's mind. He frowned but didn't have time to ponder it as Sasuke continued. He made a note of it though.

"Occasionally we would see real shinobi. We counted ten in total, all wearing visible Konoha hitae. However," a tense look crossed his face, "all of them disabled in some way. Three were missing hands or arms, several were missing an eye or both."

"What, were they missing-nin?" Kiba asked.

"No," Sasuke said. "We checked their records, all of them are legitimate Konoha ninja who are on the disabled lists."

"What would they be doing there then?" Kiba said more to himself then a question.

"Sometimes ninja who still want active duty are assigned to low-grade action positions," Shikamaru answered anyway. He thought hard, trying to remember any requests for such jobs they had gotten recently. "Usually guarding or adding numbers to parties. But obviously we have too few jobs and too many men. They tend to hire themselves out to less then honourable groups."

It was a fear all ninja had. Conditioned from their childhood to the ways of combat many couldn't see a life beyond their current ones. Their bodies and strength were a way of life. A few who chose teaching or medical professions rested a bit easier, and the small number of elite like Shikamaru took comfort in their other talents. But many ninja preferred death to a disabling injury and the sight of a one armed person with hitae often drew looks of pity and uneasiness.

Sasuke nodded. He clearly hated to address a room and being interrupted was beginning to tell on his patience. "We hadn't infiltrated the base yet but the manpower should be a piece of cake for Naruto. The unknown factor is of course the kids. Naruto will probably sacrifice a lot for them."

The unknown factor was Naruto himself, Shikamaru couldn't help but think sourly. At this point Shikamaru didn't know which was more important to Naruto: Gaara or the kids' safety.

"So what's the plan?" Chouji asked looking at Shikamaru. Everyone turned from Sasuke to him now, clearly waiting for him to answer. Shikamaru scowled for a moment. Just once he wanted them to look to someone else.

"Main objectives, the safety of the genin and the reputation of one Uzumaki Naruto," he smiled bitterly as he said the name. He closed his eyes and let the words flow out of him. "Point men are Sasuke and Kakashi. You will handle the guards with as little damage as you can. These guards are our own men, whether or not they are on Konoha assignments. Shino, Hinata and Kiba will be the first to enter. Hinata, your objective is the genin, Kiba, you go for Naruto and Shino, Gaara. Ino, Chouji, Sakura to follow and secure an escape route."

"And you?" Ino asked.

"I'll be with Kiba," he scowled. "I need a few words with Naruto."

…………………………………………………………………………………

Hanako shifted in her sleep, making the shackles rub until finally she pinched the skin on her wrist and opened her eyes with a start. She blinked and reached to rub her face but was brought up short by the chains. Musad, linked to her, moved, his eyes starting to flutter as he woke. Kaida was all ready awake, scowling, her face a pinched white in the dim room. Disoriented, Hanako looked to whatever it was Kaida was staring so intently at.

The three of them were chained together and locked in a somewhat rusty and decrepit looking iron cell. The cell itself wasn't that big but the room beyond it was huge, more like a stadium then a jail. It was fairly dark too, the only visibility coming from several sterile lights that lined the lower walls. The edge of their cell was a couple of meters away from a sheer drop, and beyond the sheer drop was an empty space. Like two little doll figurines, Hanako saw one red head and one blonde trapped in two bubbles of shimmering lightning.

"What are they doing?" Musad was awake. Kaida scowled deeper.

"Well, I'm not sure it's _them_ we have to wonder about," she said sourly. "Wait, the bald man'll be back soon."

And as she said it, sure enough a balding, pigeon toed man shuffled into the empty display area. There must have been a door under their feet because several people followed him, more then would be possible if they had just been waiting out of view.

Chained in a line with Musad in the middle, it was hard for them to move without banging each other painfully with the heavy chains but they managed to shuffle as close to the iron bars as possible.

The people were all dressed in white coats and ranged from all ages, races and genders. A thick, tan skinned, black haired man and a short, squat pale woman were carrying objects that they placed in the middle of two complicated looking seals painted on the ground.

"Why the hell do they have teapots?" Kaida asked.

"What?" Hanako asked and squinted. Sure enough, the man and the woman had placed two, innocent looking teapots. They were foreign designed with a handle and a spout, not like the traditional clay ones most people used in Konoha. One was pink with little daisy chains decorating it and the other was a pale blue with two bright suns painted on each side.

Kaida and Hanako frowned at each other over Musad's head but he just sighed and settled down to wait.

Gaara couldn't help but feel incredibly resigned. It seemed like every step he took a seal was waiting for him. He wished that, just for once, someone wasn't trying to meddle in his life so much and that, just for once, he could be normal.

Naruto couldn't help but feel incredibly angry. He should have waited for Shikamaru, as his often late and never loud enough common sense told him. He wasn't so much worried for himself but he had gotten three new genin, so fresh out of the Academy their ears were still wet, captured and in danger. It was like someone out there was waiting for him to pop up and then, like a Whack-A-Mole, smack him down again.

"Subject, Uzumaki Naruto," the man was balding, badly, and was short. He stooped over and shuffled from place to place, directing the other white clad people with a high pitched, whining voice. It was hard to see definite images through the shifting yellow light that entrapped them but the high pitched voice was more then enough to use to identify the man. He had been here earlier, when they had first regained consciousness.

"I'm not a subject," Naruto retorted but the man barely seemed to hear him.

"Subject Gaara," Naruto glanced over and Gaara just remained silent. "They seem to be in good health."

"After seeing the improvement of a varied diet we attempted to diversity the nutrients," a woman's voice answered him. "Subject Gaara was fed a few hours ago, but we don't know when Subject Uzumaki last ate."

The balding man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Naruto refused to grace him with any words. "Perhaps we should open his stomach and examine the contents before proceeding with him."

"What?" Naruto all but yelled. "No one's going to be opening me up! Nyah uh."

"I thought we were to do the procedure at the same time," a thin voiced man piped up. "Separating them would create an imbalance in the seals. We can't afford to hire another ninja to compensate."

"And delaying it would be inadvisable," the woman added.

"You're right, of course," the man said but sounded more conceded then resigned. "But how can we calculate the risks of the strain on Subject Naruto's body? Without the proper nutrients how can we be sure of the outcome?"

And just like that Naruto knew that this wasn't a deciding period, it was a test for the other people, the students, and he and Gaara, the subjects, had no say and nothing was going to change the mind of the balding man of whatever was going to happen in this room.

The students began to argue amoung themselves.

"We could inject the nutrients, it would only take a few hours for them to register in his system."

"Then Subject G's system would be out of sync."

"What about injecting them both?"

"That could work, I suppose."

"But how are we going to get close to both of them, they're conscious. We could be attacked."

"Doesn't one of the guards have a juutsu or something to disable people?"

"Juutsu and chakra aren't all powerful. After all this time you of all people should know that."

The group descended into a squabble and Naruto and Gaara exchanged looks through the shimmering walls. Finally, the balding man spoke and quieted them all.

"We are all forgetting. Subject Uzumaki has had nearly a full month of free range exercise. His body is well up to the task of withstanding. Subject Gaara on the other hand, as we observed, expresses less physical fitness as a result of the defensive versus offensive nature of the demon inside of him. We had the unexpected bonus of seeing Subject Gaara's physical limits the other day and we know well that he had a sixty percent chance of complete recovery. Subject Uzumaki therefore has a greater chance then Subject Gaara when they are both equal in nutritional strength and when they are unequal their chances are thus the same."

Naruto looked at him bewildered but Gaara looked at the doctor with narrowed eyes, obviously understanding. It seemed the other students did as well and whispered amoung themselves.

"Did you catch that?" Kaida turned to Hanako and the other girl shrugged helplessly. The high-pitched voice of the doctor made words echo easily back to them.

"It means that Naruto is stronger," Musad said in his halting way and both girls looked at him in surprise. He glared back. "What? I am not stupid. You think too hard about sentences, not enough about words. Naruto is stronger, Gaara is weaker. So when Gaara has better nutritional and Naruto worse, they are equal. It is like a weight scale," he shrugged then paused. "Nutritional is what?"

"I think it means how much food they have gotten," Hanako said. "And what was that about a demon?"

"I don't know," Blondie accidentally yanked Musad as she leaned closer to the bars. "Shut up and maybe they'll say something."

Having made the final decision, the white coated students started to scurry away. Some left the way they had come, some busied themselves by carefully looking over the painted seals and the rest gossiped quietly over their clipboards and notebooks. The only one to pay attention to Naruto and Gaara was the balding man.

Naruto clenched his fists as the man smiled. "Just a few more minutes boys then we'll have you fixed up."

"What the hell do you mean?" Naruto could never keep himself quiet for long. "Fixed up? I like myself plenty the way it is now, no cutting into my stomach or whatever the hell you wackos are doing."

The man looked surprised then delighted. "Oh! I had forgotten that you could speak like us. I knew you did, of course. During our observations you two communicated quite competently."

Naruto shot another glance at Gaara who shrugged. "Look, buddy, I don't know what you are babbling on about but I suggest you let us go. Kidnapping shinobi is a serious offense in our villages."

"Oh, how delightful!" the man clapped his hands. "I knew you knew where you lived, after we released you there was no hesitation when you returned to your origin place. Subject Gaara confused us a little, we were certain that he would return to his home town as well but it seems you two formed a connection. We were worried when those two other Konoha ninja interfered with our tracking but it has all worked out in the end, of course."

The condescending tone in the man's voice was starting to set Naruto's nerves on edge.

"Why are we here?" Gaara spoke this time, quietly.

"Oh, don't you worry about that," the man beamed at them like he would a child. "Just relax and we will have those troublesome nasties out of you soon enough."

"Nasties?" Naruto shouted and went as close to the wall as he dared. "I'll have you know I work well enough with kyuubi and I'd like it if people would stop fucking with that!"

Perhaps it was the harsh language or the name of the issue, but the balding man lost some of the false delight.

"That is not something to joke around with, young man," he wagged a finger but his body was strung with more anger then before. "This disease is a major problem. It can affect your sanity and shorten your life. We are only trying to do what is best for you."

"Best for us?" Naruto snorted. "I know what's best for me. I may not like the dammed demon but I sure as hell have learned to work with it. Take it away and what did it all mean?" he looked at the man and he took a step back at the intensity of Naruto's eyes. Gaara stared at him as well. "All the stupid looks, isolation, the years spent away from my friends because no one else could stand me? Take away that fix and I have no reason anymore!"

"But-" the man seemed to be a loss for words. "But you'll be normal!"

"I've never been normal," Naruto growled. "And I sure as hell don't want to start now!"

Gaara stared at his hands. Normal. Was he normal? No, no, of course not. A murderer from the cradle with blood filled sand as his only playmate, of course he wasn't normal. He had always wanted to be normal and he had always assumed Naruto was.

He thought to the last few months of his life, in the room with Naruto, out of the room with Naruto and then back in the room by himself. And then he thought of his life before that. It was lonely, yes of course it was lonely, and he could remember points of his life where he had been isolated from even the physical presences of people. Those times didn't compare to that room alone with himself, without Shukaku in his ear, or Naruto there to talk too. Could he live like that? Naruto was sure to leave him at some point, all people did. Shukaku had been with him his whole life, an unpleasant thorn that stabbed not his body but his heart, but at least Shukaku had been _there_. Could he be alone again?

All his life he had thought that if the demon was gone he would be better, be nicer, be closer to people. But the demon had been gone from his ear for months now and he was weaker, ruder and even more socially inept. Was it the demon holding him back or, he clenched his fists, was it himself?

"It doesn't matter what you want!" the man was red in the face now, his hands shaking in rage. The students quieted around him. "The world wants you to be fixed, to be _normal_," he spat at the ground. "It is for your own good! You!" he turned and shouted at the nearest woman. She jumped. "Get the rest of the equipment. The sooner we do this the better."

……………………………………………………………

They found two guards unconscious and tucked out of the rain. It was pitch black but all were seasoned fighters and hardly needed the thin collared radios. The two guards slumped out of the rain and inside the stone entrance. Chouji, Ino and Sakura tied them in case they woke up as the rest slipped down the staircase on silent feet.

The halls were dark as well with only a few dull lights spaced far and few between. It didn't hinder them all at, all of them used to using the power of darkness to mask their presence. Shikamaru couldn't help but a rush he hadn't had in a while, the rush of the unexpected. Even though it was a large group they were all well practiced in team maneuvers.

Shino's bugs, Kiba's nose and Hinata's Byakugan relied on no light anyway so they led through the sharp corners of the stone maze. They came across unconscious or dead bodies many times which was starting to make Shikamaru a little nervous. Naruto didn't normally get so severe. At least, he hadn't before he had left. Shikamaru was uncomfortable to admit it but Naruto had changed since coming back. Tsunade had picked up on it but he had been slower to acknowledge it.

As they crossed their second dead body he swallowed hard and wished he had just a minute to sit and think. But this was part of the field he loved to hate; there were no time outs, no long thought out planning sessions. He could only hope he had thought enough beforehand.

As one they all sensed and heard the voices ahead and stopped, plastering themselves against the wall. Shino made a signal for three people, then after a paused, added 'civilians'.

Kakashi stopped to the front of the group, lowering his eye cover as he disappeared around the corner. There wasn't even a shout of surprise before Sasuke had them move forward. Kakashi was propping the last unconscious white clad woman in a sitting position against the wall. Three lit lanterns sat next to them.

It was getting too easy to follow the trail and Shino, Hinata and Kiba were all adamant that all of their targets were in the same direction. Shikamaru was feeling more and more nervous. They came across two more people, these two holding two boxes filled with papers. Kakashi took care of them as well.

"_Uzumaki Naruto_," Shikamaru whispered, using one of the lanterns. "_Gaara_."

"What are they?" Hinata knelt next to him and they opened them while the others kept a watchful eye.

"Records," Shikamaru muttered as he quickly skimmed _Uzumaki Naruto_. "Input, output. Surgeries? Daily observations," Shikamaru paused at that one. "'Subject is drawn close to Subject Gaara. Unsure of repercussions. Implementing plans for free range trial a head of schedule, starting tomorrow? Subject to be released approximately five thousand meters from hidden city West entrance.'" Shikamaru felt a headache coming on. "The- the name of this facility was what again?"

Kakashi and Sasuke exchanged a look. "Fire Country Experimental Chakra and Juutsu Research Facility," Sasuke recited with a frown. "Why?"

But Shikamaru didn't want to answer as suddenly everything connected and it was like the rest of the world fell away as he finally understood.

He had signed many papers in the last few years, most of them after a brief glance over. He remembered this one, finally, and it was giving him a sick feeling. Doctor Tenko, a bowlegged, greasy scalped man had approached the Hokage three years ago with a proposal. Back then Shikamaru had merely been a shadow in the back of the office helping Tsunade and still has mild aspirations of becoming a jounin. He had taken an immediate dislike to the man, in his tone, his dress and the look in his eye. But the proposal was sound and even though he and Tsunade were distrustful of the man they had both though the idea was a good one.

That was the last he had seen of that man though they regularly received information, scrolls and requests for funds over the years, usually delivered by pigeon courier. The last letter they had received was three months ago and it had disturbed him.

They had spoken about a breakthrough with chakra contaminations in the bodies of infected shinobi. The word 'cleansing' had been repeated too many times for Shikamaru's liking but there had been nothing serious to take into consideration and the letter had been filed away. Over a month later Naruto had shown up looking a little worse for wear but there had been too many letters and too many new problems in-between for Shikamaru to make connections.

Now, however, he was beginning to realise just what his signature and indifference meant. He had always known of course that his decisions impacted hundreds of people everyday, from the little things he did like correcting mistakes on missions to the major things like splitting up teams or putting them back together again. But it had never been this personal before. Even assigning dangerous missions to Ino hadn't bothered him as much as this. At least then he could control who she was with and when she came back, alive and well, he always felt a smidge of pride that it had been him that had protected her. But this... Naruto, Gaara, those kids. Who else had been so affected by his inattention?

This took less then a minute for him to realise and he stuffed the papers back into the box. "Sasuke, burn these. We're going to burn this place down."

Now the entire group exchanged looks and Shikamaru scowled. But Sasuke burned the boxes to ashes like Shikamaru had said and the entire group picked up on his sense of urgency as they moved through the halls again.


	9. Moron

**There's still an epilogue so no worries!**

CHAPTER 9

Kiba, Shino and Hinata led them towards a narrowing tunnel. They paused when they heard echoing voices, most of them yelling and excited. The hair on the back of Shikamaru's neck stood up at two piercing screams.

The room beyond the tunnel was lit so the path was covered in shadows. Shikamaru was more then happy to stop and wait there. Whoever it was talking couldn't be seen and he had learned the hard way to never leap into a situation he couldn't see. That was, of course, what made him prefer deskwork to fieldwork most days.

"Naruto and Gaara are through there," Kiba said, no longer trying to be quiet. His nose twitched. "There are more people but no scent I recognize."

They were crowded in the tunnel, a ball of energy that stood eerily still in waiting. Shikamaru found himself leaning on the stonewall but whether it was to hold himself back or to hold himself up he wasn't sure.

"None of them are a threat," Hinata added, her usually plain face bugling with the ugly veins of the Byakugan.

"Then why is Naruto still in there?" Sasuke looked frustrated. Suddenly Hinata stiffened.

"There's a large juutsu in progress," she said urgently. "We need to get in there now!" Her voice had a sense of urgency and forcefulness that was out of place but no one was going to question her on it.

"We need a plan," Shikamaru countered. He thought for moment, knowing full well that the rest of the team was strung too tight to be waiting. "Kakashi, Sasuke first. Hinata and Kiba second, find the kids. In and out. Shino start mapping the fastest way back."

They all moved before he finished speaking and he found himself moving with them. It would have been frightening how quickly his body adapted to the change in pace if his blood wasn't pounding so loud in his ears.

There were maybe a dozen people in the room, Shikamaru counted as he hung by the wall and the others moved ahead of him. The light was coming from two fading seals drawing on the ground and a few thin lights strung around the room. The rest was hidden in the dark but there was enough to see the shocked looks, identical on every washed out face.

Kakashi and Sasuke moved with the grace of a well-practiced team and quickly rounded up the white coated people along a wall. The civilians were obviously surprised that anyone would interrupt them and ran with little screams away from Sasuke and his narrowed red eyes. Shikamaru glanced at Hinata and Kiba as they paused then moved to jump to the second story balcony winding around the room. For split second Shikamaru felt out of place with nothing for him to do. Then Kakashi knelt by two prone bodies on the floor and he forgot about himself.

Naruto and Gaara didn't respond when Shikamaru and Kakashi hoisted them up off the ground and onto their backs. Shikamaru had never seen Naruto so pale. The group of civilians was babbling as Sasuke held them in place with a look that promised pain to the first that moved.

Kakashi lifted his eye cover for a second and looked intently at the seals.

"Anything you recognize?" Sasuke asked, his voice echoing too loudly.

Kakashi covered his eye again. He stared hard at the ground with his natural eye and didn't say anything.

"What is the meaning of this?" it was the balding greasy man Shikamaru recognized from so long ago. "Who are you people?"

"We are Konoha ninja," Sasuke said without any hesitation and with a hard edge. "We are on a rescue mission. Stay along the wall."

"Konoha ninja?" the man stepped away from the cowering group and Sasuke's fingers twitched. "A rescue mission? I don't understand. We submitted our report on time and funding was approved."

At that Kakashi and Sasuke glanced over at Shikamaru. The whimpering of the other people quieted and it was like someone had turned a spotlight on him. Shikamaru hated spotlights.

"We didn't approve the capture and detainment of our citizens," Shikamaru pointed out and adjusted his grip on Naruto. "We will send a full copy of our mission statement and outcome to you and expect our funding to be cut."

"I don't understand," the man repeated. His watery eyes were open wide and he gaped, stepping towards Shikamaru until Sasuke shoved him hard back to the wall. His students moved away from him but the man was staring too hard at Shikamaru to really notice. "We were trying to fix them. They were sick!"

Shikamaru paled a little. "If you approach them again the orders will be to treat you and your people like enemies. We will be pulling our supporting troops out. Await the Hokage's messenger."

The lock was nothing next to Kiba who cut through it like butter with his claw. The chains met the same fate but the shackles would have to be removed later. Hinata healed the cut to Hanako's face without a word and she muttered her thanks.

Once united, they turned to leave when Kaida and Musad suddenly dashed to pick up two objects lying in the middle of the seals.

No one spoke until Shino led them safely out of the facility and they joined Sakura, Chouji and Ino. The rain had grown heavier and thunder rumbled almost constantly overhead.

"Are they okay?" Sakura's hands hovered a few inches away from Naruto shoulder, unsure whether to touch him or not. Shikamaru grunted and shifted him.

"Back to the village first," Shikamaru said. As they took to the trees Hanako fell behind to grab a sack dangling from a branch. She pulled two oiled blankets out and the kids forcibly wrapped Naruto and Gaara in them. Finally, they were on their way, leaving no tracks behind as they jumped lightly from branch to branch.

………………………………………………………….

Naruto slid open the door, tired, and pocketed his key. It had been a long day of talking to the elders, filling out reports for the mission, being lectured by Tsunade, filling out more reports on passing the genin, filling out even more reports for his health insurance, now with Gaara added on, before finally someone told him to go home.

Gaara wasn't in the room but that didn't worry Naruto; the window was open and that was a sure sign the other boy was on the roof. He didn't blame him. He might not personally remember the time they spent captive but he certainly hated walls right now. Still, it had only been a few short days ago that Naruto had come home to discover him missing. If Gaara was allowed to be weary of walls then Naruto was allowed to be nervous about him being out of his sight.

He climbed to the roof and Gaara was lying there on his back with his eyes closed. He opened them when Naruto approached but didn't attempt to move as Naruto settled down next to him.

The storm from before had dissipated when they arrived back at the village those few days ago. Sakura had filled Naruto in when he had finally woken up that the rain stopped the moment they crossed the doorway into the hospital.

Naruto and the kids checked out fine, but Gaara remained in the hospital, in a private room, for two days before regaining consciousness. Temari, Kankurou and a bored looking chuunin named Kusai had arrived the next day. Worried about their brother, the two siblings were in and out of the room constantly. Naruto managed to put off answering to the bureaucratic duty but they had to work quickly to compile a realistic but fake mission report. Sand's presence at the mission was crucial. On paper it had been a mission to rescue a captured ally shinobi, Gaara, with Naruto's presence a supporting team member. Without Sand along for the mission the reasoning for the full compliment of chuunin and jounin would have never held up against the conservative members.

The day after the mission Ino and Shino left for the jounin tests taking place on the far border of Sand, a three week journey away from Konoha. Shikamaru went with them, citing a need for personal time before a breakdown. It was sudden but no one objected. For the moment Temari, Kankurou and Kusai were staying in Shikamaru and Ino's empty apartment.

Before he left Shikamaru stopped by Gaara's room where Naruto was sitting in a vigil.

"I just came to say," Shikamaru's arms were crossed and he couldn't seem to look at Naruto in the eye. "I guess I came to apologize."

"For what?" Naruto asked confused.

Shikamaru looked at the ceiling then to the ground. "For not realising what the facility was doing sooner. I should have caught that. Especially after Gaara was captured."

"Oh," Naruto shrugged. "That. Don't both yourself over it."

Shikamaru sighed. "You don't get it."

"Get what?"

"I'm trying to set things right before I leave."

"Leave?" Naruto jumped up and looked alarmed. "To where? Why? You can't leave! No matter how bad you feel that's no reason to run away!"

Shikamaru was a little taken back that Naruto was so angry. He sighed; this whole thing was getting too troublesome. He should have just written a note.

"I just need some time off," he replied. "This mistake just made it clear I look at papers too long."

"Oh," Naruto sat back down with his arms crossed and his contemplating look. Shikamaru hated that look. It normally meant that Naruto would either say something very insightful or very stupid. Shikamaru wasn't sure he was up for either right now.

"Have fun then," he finally settled on. Surprised, Shikamaru just nodded and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru's shoulders tensed as he waited for whatever Naruto was going to say, good or bad.

"Thanks," it was quiet and had a hint of a smile behind it. Shikamaru looked cautiously over his shoulder but Naruto just grinned and leaned back to prop his feet on Gaara's bed. Shikamaru thought back to the night Naruto had run away from his apartment, bent on rescuing Gaara that night on his own if need be. He smiled a bit.

Naruto tended to care for everyone around him whether or not they wanted it. All of that caring for others was a bit of a make up for the lack of support he had when he was little. Naruto had done all of that for other people, because he knew they needed it. But that night Shikamaru saw that this time it was Naruto who needed someone else. All his life Naruto had seemed content just to have people acknowledge him. He had never expressed any need for one special person, one person he needed just as much as they needed him. Shikamaru was glad that despite all the trouble, all the paperwork and all the guilt he had a part, a physical part, in giving back to the boy that had changed so many lives.

"You're welcome," Shikamaru smiled back.

"And don't worry, if you knock up Ino while you're gone I can baby sit now!"

When Gaara had woken up he was adamant in recovering in the apartment and not the hospital. The staff was all too happy to have him leave so a reluctant Tsunade released him and Naruto hovered over like him a mother hen as they walked home. Gaara had taken one look around the apartment and sighed. He relaxed in a way Naruto didn't know he could, then he took off his sandals and stumbled to the bedroom.

Naruto had been on edge as he followed him. Was he supposed to kiss Gaara goodnight? Should they hug or something? But Gaara, surprisingly, was asleep almost before he crawled into the futon and Naruto just left the issue alone.

Even now, this was the first real chance they had together and Naruto was starting to feel very uncomfortable.

What was he supposed to do with his hands? Gaara had his tucked under his head like a pillow so Naruto tried to do that as he stiffly laid back but knocked elbows with Gaara. So he tried to use them to prop himself up. Then his palms slid on the tiles and he sat up again, twirling his thumbs in his lap. Should be start or should Gaara? Should they talk? Or should he just ignore it for now? Did Gaara regret it? What was _it_?

He opened his mouth then shut it again half a dozen times before Gaara got annoyed.

"Stop thinking so loud."

"Sorry," Naruto muttered. It made the silence more awkward. Finally, Naruto couldn't take it. "Do you want something to eat?"

Gaara shrugged but he took that as a yes and they climbed back into the apartment. Gaara sat on a stool to stay out of the way while Naruto poked around the fridge trying to find a meal. The vegetables were still fresh from when Kaida had brought them back but there was no meat in the house and Naruto didn't want to leave now. The past few days had been so busy that he didn't have a chance to do any sort of the work needed to maintain a kitchen so with a grin he reached into one of the cupboards and pulled out the last two bowls of instant ramen. A few minutes later they were sitting side by side with Naruto eagerly watching the clock for the three minutes to be over.

"Naruto," Gaara said then stopped. It was enough for Naruto to drag his eyes away from the clock and putting Gaara on the spot until he continued. He squirmed for a moment. "What-"

"-do I think of you?" Naruto finished for him and Gaara scowled. Naruto laughed and shrugged. "Hey, I've been asked that a lot lately."

Gaara shot him a look that Naruto chose to interpret as I'm-glad-you-have-put-so-much-time-and-thought-into-it then what it probably meant which was who-the-hell-else-has-been-asking-you-that!

"And your answer is?"

This conversation felt like it had been a long time in the making but for once Naruto was ready for it.

"That I like you," Naruto said with all the confidence he usually had. "And that I like you being here. I missed you."

"Missed me?" it was like Gaara had never heard someone say that about him before. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why?"

The question didn't faze Naruto at all. He opened his ramen and started to stir. "Because I like you," he repeated. "I just do."

Gaara looked at him with a haunted look. Naruto wasn't so sure that the ghosts of their pasts weren't hovering around the room.

"But you don't remember what I was like."

Naruto couldn't help but laugh and it was like the darkness shrouding their conversation disappeared. A burst of light in the dark and it made Gaara lose his desperation and scowl.

"I didn't mean to be funny."

"I know, I know," Naruto hooked his ankles on his stool legs and leaned towards Gaara. Gaara dropped his chopsticks in surprise and one rolled onto the floor. "But I did and I want to again," Naruto didn't stop grinning and he reached up and cupped Gaara's cheek with one hand. The other rested on the edge of the counter as he leaned beyond his stool and solidly pressed his lips to Gaara's.

The hesitation and the questions that had hovered over him were gone like the ghosts and after a moment Gaara relaxed into him.

When he finally pulled away Gaara reached up with a flash and grabbed his shirt to keep him off balance. The scowl was gone and a smirk took it's place. Naruto knew he was grinning like a moron but he knew deep down that it had been a long time since he had seen that smirk and it made him happy in a way he had forgotten he could be.

"So?" Naruto wagged his eyebrows comically. "What do _you_ think of _me_?"

There was a brief pause before Gaara pulled him close again and breathed against his lips, "Moron."

Over the next few days Gaara was hit with the same bureaucracy and paperwork Naruto had, plus several extra departments and forms he had never heard of before. The Department of Immigration. A form to accept a co-allegiance position between Sand and Konoha. An application to the Konoha Ninja union. A co-lease for Naruto's apartment. A job application for Tsunade. Several scrolls and books on 'Life of the Konoha Ninja', 'Culture Shock and You' and finally, the most inevitable one 'Life Beyond Juutsu'.

"We still aren't sure what to do with those teapots," Tsunade announced when they sat with her in her office. The empty one across the hall had been occupied by two chuunin who had taken over Shikamaru's old job of correcting and filing mission reports. Tsunade was now forced to handle a lot of the incoming letters but had delegated lower mission assignments and such to other people. "Kakashi determined that they were part of a extraction and binding seal but the ninja who wrote it was killed during your escapade," she looked pointedly at Naruto. "This is where I have to ask two a very important question."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto rolled his eyes theatrically.

"Did the seal work? Are the demons," she paused. "Gone?"

Gaara and Naruto exchanged a glance before Gaara answered. "We can't tell."

"What do you mean you can't tell?" she said in a disbelieving voice.

"I mean we can't tell," Naruto grumbled. "Kyuubi and I don't exactly have regular heart to hearts! I think they did something screwy with it even before they tried to take it out. Something like Gaara's new seal. When I tried to use the demon to help me to get Gaara out I couldn't reach it. It was like something new had blocked it and I can't see past that."

Gaara nodded. "What ever they did to us before is still affecting us now."

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples. "So they are no longer a threat either way?"

"Well it might happen one day that the walls will break down," Naruto said. "Or if we opened the teapots and checked."

"I'm not going to release a demon into the world just to check," she pulled a face. "Either way this mission is highly classified. No one needs to know." Leaning back and predicting a very big headache she waved them out of her office.

So the teapots sat ominously on the top shelf of their cupboard surrounded by the strongest seals they could get.

The new teacher jounin for the genin, one Akai Hiiro, had arrived back from a deep mission in the Tea Country. He was old, older then Naruto at any rate, and listened gravely over tea as Naruto explained the genin's unofficial experience.

"Good, good," he stroked the thin, peppering beard. He had a long scar over his eye and squinted in that one more then the other. Naruto found it a little distracting. "Loyalty at an early age."

"Uh yeah," Naruto tore his eyes away from the scar. "Kaida – the blonde one- she's a little complicated but," he grinned, "she's there when you need her."

"And Hanako, the leader," Hiiro took another sip from his bowl. He was using the red one with the delicate painted flower. "It will be odd having two females on the team. Every one I have worked with before they've balanced two males with a female."

"It works well," Naruto insisted. "Hanako and Musad compliment each other well, and he and Blondie have lived together for a while now. They all know each other. It's not like a regular genin team."

"I can see that," he replied thoughtfully and drained the last of the green tea powder. He left shortly after that and Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit regretful as he shut the door. One day it would be nice to have a team of his own. A team like he, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi had been. But first that meant becoming a jounin and the next test wasn't for another six months.

Gaara was out so he had the apartment to himself. He put the tea in the sink and left it there. Gaara would be annoyed later but he just couldn't work up the enthusiasm to wash dishes now.

Without kyuubi on hand it would be different now to succeed where he wanted too. He had seen the world. He had fallen in love with other villages, other ways of life. Even the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with was alien to the place he called home. He felt loyal to Konoha but he wasn't sure he felt the same need to embrace every aspect of the life as he had before.

Suddenly a thought struck him. He had first wanted to become Hokage to force people to acknowledge him. He had wanted to change the village. Just because he had gotten used to sliding in and out of cultures and customs and found his own a bit more odd then others now didn't mean that the Hokage was a job just to maintain the village. It was a job to guide it and change it and make it better.

It would be harder with Kyuubi to get him out of tight corner but he wasn't Uzumaki Naruto for nothing. It would just be a little harder now. He snorted. It was ironic. All that time he had spent soul searching and he ended up at the same damn conclusion. Still, he had seen the world and he wanted to be a major part of that. Hokage was the first step.

The door opened and Gaara kicked his sandals off with a bit of venom.

"Temari and Kakurou finally left," Gaara was getting better at the small talk. Months of living in extreme close quarters with another person had forced his people skills to radically change but he was still only good at them with Naruto. It was a relief to have his brother and sister gone.

"Hey Gaara," Naruto sat on a stool as Gaara stepped into the apartment. "Guess what?"

Gaara looked at him and sensed something was different. He stopped wearily, unsure if Naruto was going to pull a prank on him or tell him a very important piece of news he wasn't going to like. He glanced subtly around for trap wires. "What?"

"I'm going to become Hokage."

"Is that all?"

"Is that all? Gaara, I just decided what I wanted to do with my life!"

"You've been saying that since you were twelve."

"But I'm serious now!"

"… you seemed pretty serious then too."

"I'm being practical now!"

"…"

And Naruto finally saw just what had gone on between then for the months they must have been locked up and he grinned when he realised that it was exactly what he had searched the world for.


End file.
